Arab leaders meet to counter Trump's Gaza plan
Trump provoked international outrage when he announced that the United States would "take over the Gaza Strip", moving 2.4 million Gazans living there to neighbouring Egypt and Jordan
Arab leaders will gather in Saudi Arabia on Friday to counter President Donald Trump's plan for US control of Gaza and the expulsion of its inhabitants, diplomatic and government sources said.
The plan stirred rare unity among Arab states which roundly rejected the idea, but they could still disagree over who will govern the Palestinian territory and who will pay for reconstruction.
Umer Karim, an expert on Saudi foreign policy, told AFP the summit would be the "most consequential" in decades in relation to the wider Arab world and the Palestinian issue.
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Trump provoked international outrage when he announced that the United States would "take over the Gaza Strip", moving 2.4 million Gazans living there to neighbouring Egypt and Jordan.
A source close to the Saudi government told AFP Arab leaders would discuss "a reconstruction plan counter to Trump's plan for Gaza".
Meeting with Trump in Washington on February 11, Jordan's King Abdullah II said Egypt would present a plan for a way forward.
The Saudi source said the talks would discuss "a version of the Egyptian plan" the king mentioned.
Friday's summit was originally planned for Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan.
However, it has been expanded to include the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and the Palestinian Authority.
For Palestinians, any attempt to force them from Gaza would have echoes of what the Arab world calls the "Nakba" or catastrophe when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled in the fighting that accompanied Israel's creation in 1948.
Reconstruction
Reconstruction will be a critical issue at the summit after Trump highlighted this as the key reason for moving its inhabitants out while Gaza's infrastructure is rebuilt.
Egypt has not yet announced its counter-initiative, but Egyptian former diplomat Mohamed Hegazy described a plan "in three technical phases over three to five years".
The first would be a six-month "early recovery phase", said the member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, a think tank with strong ties to decision-making circles in Cairo.
"Heavy machinery will be brought in to remove debris, while designated safe zones will be identified within Gaza to temporarily relocate residents," Hegazy said.
The second phase will require an international conference to provide details of reconstruction and would focus on rebuilding utility infrastructure, he said.
"The final phase will oversee the urban planning of Gaza, the construction of housing units, and the provision of educational and healthcare services."
