Arab states adopt Egyptian alternative to Trump's 'Gaza Riviera'

By Andrew Mills, Yomna Ehab and Nafisa Eltahir

CAIRO (Reuters) -Arab leaders adopted an Egyptian reconstruction plan for Gaza on Tuesday that would cost $53 billion and avoid resettling Palestinians, in contrast to U.S. President Donald Trump's "Middle East Riviera" vision, according to a copy of the plan.

Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said that the proposal had been accepted at the closing of a summit in Cairo.

Sisi said at the summit he was certain that Trump would be able to achieve peace in the conflict that has devastated the Gaza Strip.

The major questions that need to be answered about Gaza's future are who will run the enclave and which countries will provide the billions of dollars needed for reconstruction.

Sisi said Egypt had worked in cooperation with Palestinians on creating an administrative committee of independent, professional Palestinian technocrats entrusted with the governance of Gaza.

The committee would be responsible for the oversight of humanitarian aid and managing the Strip's affairs for a temporary period, in preparation for the return of the Palestinian Authority (PA), he said.

The other critical issue is the fate of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, the PA's rival, which triggered the Gaza war by attacking Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the PA, said he welcomed the Egyptian idea and urged Trump to support such a plan that would not involve displacing Palestinian residents.

Abbas, in power since 2005, also said he was ready to hold presidential and parliamentary elections if circumstances allowed, adding his PA was the only legitimate governing and military force in the Palestinian Territories.

An architect of the 1993 Oslo peace accords with Israel that raised hopes of Palestinian statehood, Abbas has seen his legitimacy steadily undermined by Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank, which he oversees. Many Palestinians now regard his administration as corrupt, undemocratic and out of touch.

RECONSTRUCTION WOULD NEED GULF STATES

Any reconstruction funding would require heavy buy-in from oil-rich Gulf Arab states such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which have the billions of dollars needed.

The UAE, which sees Hamas and other Islamists as an existential threat, wants an immediate and complete disarmament of the group, while other Arab countries advocate a gradual approach, a source close to the matter said.

A source close to Saudi Arabia's royal court says the continued armed presence of Hamas in Gaza was a stumbling block because of strong objections from the United States and Israel, who would need to sign off on any plan.

In a speech at the summit, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said international guarantees were needed that the current temporary ceasefire would remain in place, and supported the PA's role in governing the strip.

Leaders of the UAE and Qatar did not speak during open sessions of the summit.

Hamas was founded in 1987 by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood during the first Palestinian Intifada, or uprising.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri on Tuesday rejected Israeli and U.S. calls for the group to disarm, saying its right to resist was not negotiable.

Abu Zuhri told Reuters the group would not accept any attempt to impose projects, or any form of non-Palestinian administration or the presence of foreign forces.

Since Hamas drove the Palestinian Authority out of Gaza after a brief civil war in 2007, it has crushed all opposition there.

ALTERNATIVE TO TRUMP PLAN

Egypt, Jordan and Gulf Arab states have for almost a month been consulting over an alternative to Trump's ambition for an exodus of Palestinians and a U.S. rebuild of Gaza, which they fear would destabilise the entire region.

A draft final communique from the summit seen earlier by Reuters firmly rejected the mass displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.

Egypt's Reconstruction Plan for Gaza is a 112-page document that includes maps of how its land would be re-developed and dozens of colourful AI-generated images of housing developments, gardens and community centres. The plan includes a commercial harbour, a technology hub, beach hotels and an airport.

Israel was unlikely to oppose an Arab entity taking responsibility for Gaza's government if Hamas was off the scene, said a source familiar with the matter.

But an Israeli official told Reuters that Israel's war aims from the beginning have been to destroy Hamas' military and governing capabilities.

"Therefore, if they are going to get Hamas to agree to demilitarise, it needs to be immediately. Nothing else will be acceptable," the official said.

Sources familiar with Hamas said the group had only lost a few thousand fighters in the Gaza war, in which more than 48,000 people have been killed, according to Palestinian health officials.

Israeli officials say around 20,000 Hamas fighters have been killed and the group has been destroyed as an organized military formation.

(Reporting by James Mackenzie and Emily Rose in Jerusalem, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo, Pesha Magid in Riyadh, Andrew Mills in Doha, Jana Choukeir in Dubai and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Nafisa Eltahir, Yomna Ehab and Mohamed Gebaily in Cairo; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Alex Richardson and Jon Boyle)