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Palestinians in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip welcomed the reconstruction plan devised at the Arab summit in Cairo on Tuesday with cautious optimism, but feared it could face obstacles without US support.
Arab leaders meeting in Egypt endorsed the plan for Gaza that envisions technocratic control of the war-battered territory without Hamas members and a $53 billion reconstruction plan, according to a resolution adopted at the one-day summit.
Egypt's plan estimates rebuilding will take three to five years and, contrary to US President Donald Trump's vision, Gaza's 2.3 million Palestinians will stay in the coastal enclave while the work is under way, instead of being forced to resettle in Egypt and Jordan.
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“Unless the US approves it, the implementation will be extremely difficult,” Mohammed Al Lala, a resident of Gaza city, said, adding that he believed the decision “ultimately lies in Washington's hands”.
“At this point, there is little we can do,” Mr Al Lala said but was hopeful that Mr Trump's economic ties with Arab states will persuade him to accept the terms of the plan.
Arab plan for Gaza
The plan supports a two-state solution and calls for the establishment of a transitional governance committee that will gradually hand over control to the Palestinian Authority. “There must be a commitment to transparency, accountability, and the eradication of corruption within governmental structures,” Mr Sabbah, 55, said.
Hamas welcomed the plan and called for the provision of the necessary tools to ensure the plan's success, saying the meeting was a “step forward” in Arab and Islamic support for the Palestinian cause. It proposed the formation of a temporary committee “to oversee relief efforts, reconstruction and governance”. However, the US dismissed the plan, saying it ignored the realities on the ground.
The US has said the plan presented by Arab states for rebuilding Gaza fails to address the reality that the enclave is “uninhabitable” and that residents “cannot humanely live in a territory covered in debris and unexploded ordnance”.
Israel rejected the plan on Tuesday, with its foreign ministry saying it supported the earlier plan put forward by Mr Trump and accused Arab states of shunning the proposal without giving it a chance. Israel also criticised what it said was Arab leaders' reliance for postwar administration on the PA.
“They are not even willing to engage with the Palestinian Authority, which reveals their broader strategy of exclusion,” Firas Bassam, a Gazan currently residing in the US said of Israel's rejection. “Israel has dismissed the plan entirely,” he added.
Mr Al Lala also expressed concern that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reluctance to support such a plan would obstruct the implementation of the resolution, rendering yet another symbolic pledge to help reconstruct Gaza.
“These changes cannot happen overnight, but they must be implemented within one to two years at most,” Mr Sabbah noted. The plan divides the reconstruction process into two phases – the first that will take two years and a second phase more than two and a half years – while the political transition committee will be in place for six to 12 months.
The plan also has political and security sections outlining how Gaza will be governed after the war. The political part envisages a committee of 20 independent technocrats to run the territory for six months, meaning Hamas will have to relinquish its authority, according to sources. They said Palestinian factions have approved the nominated technocrats, despite them not being affiliated with any group.
Hamas expressed support for the summit’s stance on building Palestinian national institutions, affirming the importance of elections. “Hamas’s reaction was well-calculated. They emphasised the necessity of elections only after establishing a Palestinian state, which is a pragmatic stance,” Mr Firas said.
For Fatih Sabbah, a journalist and human rights advocate from Gaza city, the decisions "are commendable." Still, there is a "lingering fear that they will suffer the same fate as many previous Arab summit resolutions”, he added, calling for “a clear timeline and concrete mechanisms for execution".
