UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS, CHANGES DECK
By Ibrahim Khazen and Rania Abu Shamala
ISTANBUL (AA) – An emergency Arab summit opened in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on Tuesday to discuss the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.
Addressing the summit, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced a plan prepared by Cairo for rebuilding Gaza without displacing its residents.
He called for mobilizing international and regional support for the Egyptian plan.
"We hope that US President (Donald Trump)’s efforts to maintain the ceasefire in Gaza will continue,” he said.
Egypt “will not partake in any injustice against the Palestinian people,” Sisi stressed.
Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the current chair of the annual Arab summit, rejected the displacement of Palestinians from their land.
“We reject any attempts to displace Palestinians, support the two-state solution, and call for backing Egypt’s reconstruction plan,” he said in his opening remarks.
Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said peace in the region “must not be threatened by unrealistic projects.”
“The notion of forcibly displacing the Palestinian people is completely unacceptable,” he told the summit.
The Arab summit, which sees remarkable participation from Arab leaders and officials, is expected to adopt the Egyptian plan for rebuilding Gaza, as part of efforts to present a counterproposal to US plans for the displacement of Gaza's population.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly called to “take over” Gaza and resettle its population to develop it into a tourist destination. His plan was rejected by the Arab world and many other nations, who say it amounts to ethnic cleansing.
Nearly 48,400 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and over 111,000 others injured in a brutal Israeli war on Gaza since October 2023. The onslaught, which left the enclave in ruins, was paused under a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that took hold on Jan. 19.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.