Egypt President says war-torn Gaza should be rebuilt without displacing Palestinians

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi

Egypt's president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called on the international community on February 19 to adopt a plan to rebuild war-torn Gaza without displacing Palestinians.

This comes after a proposal by U.S. President Donald Trump angered Arabs with his own vision for the enclave.

"We stressed the importance of the international community adopting a plan to reconstruct the Gaza strip without displacing Palestinians — I repeat, without displacing Palestinians from their lands," Sisi told reporters in Madrid with Spain's prime minister, Reuters reported.

Trump has proposed a plan to redevelop the tiny enclave into an international beach resort after resettling its Palestinian inhabitants. He called on Jordan and Egypt to take in Palestinians.

Egypt and Jordan, along with other Arab states, rejected the plan and said they will work on an alternative to counter Trump's proposal.

Sisi added that the U.N. Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) was indispensable for Palestinians. UNRWA provides aid, health and education services to millions in the Palestinian territories and neighboring Arab countries of Syria, Lebanon and Jordan,

UNRWA said its operations in the Gaza Strip and West Bank will suffer after an Israeli law banned it in October on Israeli land – including East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in a move not recognized internationally – and contact with Israeli authorities from Jan. 30.

The United Arab Emirates' President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan told the United States' secretary of state Marco Rubio on Wednesday that his country rejects a proposal to displace Palestinians from their land, the Emirati state news agency WAM reported.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was in Saudi Arabia on Monday in a tour of the region, has said the United States was up to hearing alternative proposals. “If the Arab countries have a better plan, then that’s great,” Rubio said Thursday on the US radio program “Clay and Buck Show.”

The leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE and Qatar are expected to discuss the plan in Riyadh this month before it can be presented to an Arab League summit in Cairo next month.

Gaza is nearing a critical juncture with the first phase of a ceasefire due to run out in early March. Israel and Hamas must still negotiate a second phase meant to bring a release of all remaining hostages held by the militants, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a long-term halt to the war.