Right before walking away from the podium at the White House press briefing on Wednesday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she had one more note to add: US President Donald Trump, she said, has tasked Arab nations to present him with a plan for the Gaza Strip.
The announcement followed Trump’s meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah on Tuesday, after which the king said he took a firm position in private, despite not pushing back in public.
“The king would much prefer that the Palestinians stay in place with the additional land to be used for new development, which would greatly create jobs at levels never seen before, but the president feels it would be much better and more majestic if these Palestinians could be moved to safer areas,” Leavitt told reporters.
“The president remains wholeheartedly committed to seeing peace in the Middle East, and our Arab partners in the region have been tasked with coming up with a peace plan to present to the president,” she said.
No timeline was offered.
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The move could signal that Trump is now open to ideas from Arab governments, even though he stood by his own plan to empty out Gaza and build a beach resort there in his response to a reporter on Tuesday.
“I think we sort of have gone down the line. We know pretty much what is going to be presented,” Trump said, appearing to brush off those plans.
“I think it’s going to be something that’s going to be magnificent for the Palestinians. They’re going to be in love with it. I did very well with real estate. I can tell you about real estate. They’re going to be in love with it.”
Until the White House’s announcement, it was understood that Egypt, in talks with major Arab countries, was drawing up an alternative plan for Gaza on its own accord, in an attempt to steer the US president away from the forcible transfer of a population and a US “takeover”.
Now, Washington is indicating that it was Trump that asked them to do it.
The Arab plan
A summit between the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia is set to occur on an unspecified date before the 27 February “emergency meeting” on Gaza in Cairo, Al-Araby TV said on Wednesday, citing Egyptian sources.
Those sources told the broadcaster that Egypt’s proposed plan so far includes the rebuilding of Gaza within three to five years without displacing its residents.
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The plan would reportedly unfold in two stages: a cleanup of the rubble, followed by the reconstruction of residential complexes. The effort would begin in Rafah, in southern Gaza, which borders Egypt, and then move further north and encompass the entire Strip.
In a statement released by the Egyptian president’s office on Wednesday, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi reiterated once again in a phone call with King Abdullah that Gaza must only be rebuilt with its residents present.
As to who will fund the plan, Egypt is seeking the participation of the Arab world, the European Union, and the United Nations, Al-Araby TV said, leaving the US out of the equation.
Trump’s decision to “own” Gaza and develop it himself has suggested that unless Washington can benefit economically from Gaza, it wants no part in rebuilding it using taxpayer dollars.
Trump administration officials have also pursued an almost wholesale cut to foreign aid since the president took office three weeks ago.
Visits postponed
In an interview with Fox News earlier this week, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Egyptian and Saudi leaders would soon be visiting the White House to meet with Trump about Gaza.
No such meetings, however, have been announced by Washington.
But by Wednesday, the Reuters news agency reported that Sisi would forego his visit entirely if Trump did not pivot from his “Riviera of the Middle East” plan for Gaza.
Trump originally called for Egypt and Jordan to take more than 1.8 million Palestinians from Gaza.
Also on Wednesday, The Financial Times, citing a person familiar with the matter, said Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan had “postponed a scheduled trip to Washington after Trump announced his plan”.
The kingdom has scaled up its rhetoric against the US and Israel in recent days, especially after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed in an interview that Saudi Arabia has “a lot of territory” that it could simply give to Palestinians.
State broadcaster Al-Ekhbariya described Netanyahu as a “Zionist and the son of a Zionist . . . who inherited extremism in his genes,” while Al-Arabiya asked if the prime minister was experiencing a state of hallucination.
The Saudi press had already spent much of last week lambasting Washington, saying the kingdom “does not accept bargaining or auctions” when it comes to Palestine and that it will not pursue diplomatic relations with Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Ceasefire on edge
Within hours of Trump’s comments to Fox News on Sunday that Palestinians will not have a right to return to Gaza after the US “takeover”, Hamas announced it would not release the seventh batch of captives scheduled to take place on Saturday.
The group cited Israeli ceasefire violations, among them nearly 30 air strikes, nine sniper attacks, a refusal to pull back from agreed lines along the Philadelphi Corridor, the non-delivery of mobile home units, and the blocking of cash transfers to banks.
However, the announcement’s timing was also seen as a response to Trump’s remarks.
The White House on Wednesday said Trump told King Abdullah to ensure that Hamas understands the “severity of the situation” if the captives are not released by Saturday’s deadline.
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Trump also indicated that despite the agreed phased captive swaps within the ceasefire deal, he wants “all hostages, including all Americans, by Saturday, and asked for the king’s assistance”.
It’s unclear how much of that may materialise.
Egypt’s Al-Qahera TV reported on Wednesday that Egypt and Qatar – the two Arab mediators between Israel and Hamas – are communicating with the parties to the Gaza ceasefire amid US and Israeli pressure to resume military operations.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the government is prepared to fulfil Trump’s displacement plan if the captives are not released on Saturday and warned of a “new Gaza war”.
But in an added twist late on Wednesday, far-right Israeli lawmaker and former Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir said that the release of three captives by Hamas – as previously agreed – “would suffice”, even if Israel has the green light from Trump to “unleash Hell”.
For its part, Hamas said it will remain committed to the deal only if Israel does the same.
“Our position is clear, and we will not accept the language of American and Israeli threats,” Hazem Qassem, a Hamas spokesperson, said.
He added that the group’s chief negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, was already in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss “the implementation of the ceasefire agreement”.
