Arab leaders were gathering in Saudi Arabia on Friday to hammer out a recovery plan for Gaza aimed at countering US President Donald Trump’s proposal to take over the enclave and push out its residents.
Trump’s plan has united Arab states in opposition, but disagreements remain over who should govern the Gaza Strip and how to fund its reconstruction after 16 months of war.
Umer Karim, an expert on Saudi foreign policy, called the summit the “most consequential” in decades for the wider Arab world and the Palestinian issue.
A source close to the Saudi government told AFP that Arab leaders would discuss “a reconstruction plan to counter Trump’s plan for Gaza.”
Gaza is largely in ruins due to the war between Israel and Hamas, sparked by the deadly assault on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists murdered some 1,200 people and seized 251 hostages. The United Nations recently estimated that rebuilding the Strip would cost more than $53 billion.
Meeting with Trump in Washington on February 11, Jordan’s King Abdullah II said Egypt would present a plan for a way forward.
US President Donald Trump greets Jordan’s King Abdullah II in the Oval Office at the White House, in Washington, February 11, 2025. (Alex Brandon / AP)
The Saudi source said the talks would discuss “a version of the Egyptian plan.”
The official Saudi Press Agency, citing an official, confirmed on Thursday that Egypt and Jordan were participating in the Riyadh summit along with the six country members of the Gulf Cooperation Council — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
The report said decisions issued by the “unofficial fraternal meeting” would appear on the agenda of an emergency Arab League summit to be held in Egypt on 4 March.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi arrived in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, his office said.
Previously, a Saudi source told AFP the Palestinian Authority would also take part in the talks.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi attends a ceremony at the Presidential palace in Ankara, September 4, 2024. (AP/Francisco Seco)
Three phases
Rebuilding Gaza will be a key issue after Trump cited reconstruction as justification for permanently relocating the Strip’s population to neighboring Egypt and Jordan.
Cairo has yet to announce its initiative, but former Egyptian diplomat Mohamed Hegazy outlined a plan “in three technical phases over a period of three to five years.”
The first phase, lasting six months, would focus on “early recovery” and the removal of debris, he said.
The second would require an international conference to provide details of reconstruction and focus on rebuilding utility infrastructure.
And the final one, Hegazy said, would entail urban planning, the reconstruction of housing, the provision of services and the establishment of a “political track to implement the two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Palestinians walk past rubble in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, February 7, 2025. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)
An Arab diplomat familiar with Gulf affairs told AFP: “The biggest challenge facing the Egyptian plan is how to finance it.”
The plan also seeks to address the complex issue of post-war oversight for Gaza with “a Palestinian administration that is not aligned with any faction,” Hegazy said, adding the plan will involve “experts” and be “politically and legally subordinate to the Palestinian Authority.”
Hamas “will retreat from the political scene in the coming period,” said Hegazy.
Hamas has controlled Gaza since 2007, following a civil war that saw the terror group oust the West Bank-based PA, which is dominated by Hamas’s secularist rival Fatah.
Israel has ruled out accepting any plan that involves the Palestinian Authority playing a role in the management of the Gaza Strip.
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