Palestine to intensify diplomatic action following Arab Summit
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry says it instructed ambassadors abroad to immediately intensify diplomatic action to explain the outcomes of the emergency Arab Summit and mobilise the broadest political and material support for it.
At the meeting in Cairo on Tuesday, the regional leaders endorsed a counterproposal to President Trump’s plan to expel Gaza’s 2.3 million residents and redevelop the Palestinian territory.
Egypt’s plan includes an initial recovery phase aimed at de-mining the territory and providing temporary housing, followed by a longer reconstruction phase focused on rebuilding essential infrastructure.
Momentum building for united Arab front on Gaza
Abdulaziz Alghashian, a senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation Middle East, says Arab nations are ironing out their differences and formed a united front to oppose any plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza.
No diplomatic efforts will be spared to rally the international community behind the Egyptian counterproposal to US President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza, he said. This was agreed on on Tuesday at a meeting of Arab leaders.
When it comes to negotiating with Israel, the Riyadh-based analyst said Saudi Arabia has “a card to play and that is normalisation”.
“The Israeli government wants normalisation so badly and this is the carrot that the Saudis could use to get concessions towards a two-state solution,” he said.
But Alghashian pointed out that while normalisation was high on Israel’s agenda prior to October 7, 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu currently seems more interested in ensuring Palestinian statehood does not come to pass.
Palestinians in Gaza welcome an Arab plan for rebuilding
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip welcomed Arab leaders’ adoption of a plan to rebuild the territory without depopulating it.
“We are satisfied with these decisions and this summit,” said Atef Abu Zaher, from the southern city of Khan Younis. “We are clinging to our land.”
The plan advanced at the Arab summit in Cairo on Tuesday is seen as an alternative to US President Donald Trump’s proposal to resettle Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians in other countries and redevelop Gaza as a beach destination.
Even as they welcomed the Arab plan, many Palestinians expressed doubts over whether it would be implemented.
“The important thing is that the Arab countries are serious,” said Yasser Abed. He expressed hope that Arab nations would follow through on the plan, “unlike the thousands of [other] decisions they have taken about our cause”.
France welcomes Arab plan for Gaza; says Hamas must be excluded
France has applauded an Arab plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip under the future administration of the Palestinian Authority, and said Hamas should be “entirely” excluded from running the territory.
The proposal from Arab leaders “constitutes a serious and credible basis to respond to reconstruction, governance and security needs after the Gaza war”, Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine said.
But “the plan must entirely exclude Hamas from governing Gaza, where it must be disarmed and give Israel serious security guarantees”, he said.
Arab leaders on Tuesday endorsed a plan that would finance Gaza’s reconstruction through a trust fund, while rejecting a separate proposal by the US president to expel Palestinians and build the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
Essay Pro