U.S. and Israel dismiss $53B plan endorsed by Arab states to rebuild Gaza, prevent mass displacement

CBC News

· Posted: Mar 05, 2025 10:45 AM EST | Last Updated: March 5

The United States and Israel person some rejected an alternate program to rebuild Gaza aft it was adopted by Arab states astatine a Tuesday summit.

Egypt's program — which would outgo an estimated $53 cardinal US — would forestall wide displacement of the enclave's colonisation of astir two million Palestinians.

The program endorsed by Arab leaders astatine a acme successful Cairo was a counter-proposal to U.S. President Donald Trump's connection to displace its residents, instrumentality ownership of the territory and redevelop it into a "Middle Eastern Riviera."

White House National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes dismissed the Egyptian connection arsenic unworkable.

"The existent connection does not code the world that Gaza is presently uninhabitable and residents cannot humanely unrecorded successful a territory covered successful debris and unexploded ordnance," Hughes said precocious Tuesday.

"President Trump stands by his imaginativeness to rebuild Gaza escaped from Hamas. We look guardant to further talks to bring bid and prosperity to the region."

Israel reiterates enactment for Trump's plan

The program endorsed by Arab states would spot Hamas would cede powerfulness to an interim medication of governmental independents until a reformed Palestinian Authority tin presume control.

A spokesperson for Israel's Foreign Ministry, Oren Marmorstein, posted connected X that the Egyptian program "fails to code the realities of the situation" and said the summit's associated communiqué does not notation Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, onslaught that sparked the warfare oregon condemn the militant group. The plan, helium said, remains "rooted successful outdated perspectives." 

Marmorstein reiterated Israel's enactment for Trump's program to resettle Gaza's colonisation elsewhere, describing it arsenic "an accidental for the Gazans to person escaped prime based connected their escaped will."

WATCH | Trump proposes for U.S. to take ownership of Gaza past month: 

Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty blasted Israel's rejection arsenic "unacceptable," describing its presumption arsenic "stubborn and extremist."

"There volition beryllium nary bid neither to Israel oregon to the region" without establishing an autarkic Palestinian authorities successful accordance with United Nations resolutions, helium said. "Israel violates each planetary instrumentality rules … the planetary instrumentality indispensable beryllium imposed."

 "No azygous authorities should beryllium allowed to enforce its volition connected the planetary community," Abdelatty said.

Palestinians, Hamas invited Egypt's plan

In a societal media station earlier Tuesday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said helium looked guardant to moving with Trump, different Arab nations and the planetary assemblage "to follow a program that aims for a broad and conscionable colony of the Palestinian Issue, ends the basal causes of the Israeli Palestinian conflict, guarantees the information and stableness of the peoples of the portion and establishes the Palestinian State."

Hamas, meanwhile, welcomed the summit's outcome, saying it marked a caller signifier of Arab and Islamic alignment with the Palestinian origin and that it valued Arab leaders' rejection of attempts to transportation Palestinians from their territories successful Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Palestinians successful the Gaza Strip besides welcomed the Arab leaders' adoption of a program to rebuild the territory without depopulating it.

"We are satisfied with these decisions and this summit," said Atef Abu Zaher, from the confederate metropolis of Khan Younis. "We are clinging to our land." 

Even arsenic they welcomed the Arab plan, galore Palestinians expressed doubts implicit whether it would beryllium implemented.

"The important happening is that the Arab countries are serious," said Yasser Abed. He expressed anticipation they would travel done connected the plan, "unlike the thousands of [other] decisions they person taken astir our cause."

Egypt's program foresees rebuilding Gaza by 2030 without removing its population. The archetypal signifier calls for starting the removal of unexploded ordnance and clearing much than 50 cardinal tons of rubble near by Israel's bombardment and subject offensives.

Arab League main Ahmed Aboul Gheit said the summit's last communiqué calls connected the UN Security Council to deploy an planetary peacekeeping unit successful Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Plan to see UN co-operation

The communiqué said Egypt volition big an planetary conference, successful co-operation with the United Nations, for Gaza's reconstruction, and a World Bank-overseen spot money volition beryllium established to person pledges to instrumentality the aboriginal betterment and reconstruction plan.

According to a 112-page draught of the program obtained by The Associated Press, hundreds of thousands of impermanent lodging units would beryllium acceptable up for Gaza's colonisation portion reconstruction takes place. Rubble would beryllium recycled, with immoderate of it utilized arsenic infill to grow onshore connected Gaza's Mediterranean coast.

In the pursuing years, the program envisages wholly reshaping the strip, gathering "sustainable, greenish and walkable" lodging and municipality areas, with renewable energy. It renovates cultivation lands and creates concern zones and ample parkland areas.

It besides calls for the opening of an airport, a sportfishing larboard and a commercialized port. The Oslo bid accords successful the 1990s called for the opening of an airdrome and a commercialized larboard successful Gaza, but the projects withered arsenic the bid process collapsed.

The warfare began with Hamas's Oct. 7 onslaught connected Israel, successful which Palestinian militants killed astir 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 radical hostage. Hamas-led militants are inactive holding 59 hostages, 35 of whom are believed to beryllium dead.

Most of the remainder were released successful ceasefire agreements. Israel has rescued 8 surviving hostages and recovered the remains of dozens more.

Israel's 15-month violative killed much than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. It doesn't accidental however galore were fighters, but the ministry says women and children made up much than fractional the dead. Israel says it killed implicit 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The violative destroyed ample areas of Gaza, including overmuch of its wellness strategy and different infrastructure. At its height, the warfare displaced astir 90 per cent of the population, mostly wrong the territory, wherever hundreds of thousands packed into squalid structure camps and schools repurposed arsenic shelters.