The $53 billion Arab support plan for rebuilding Gaza attracted support from France, Germany, Italy and the UK after being pushed back from the US and Israel.
“This plan presents a realistic path to reconstruction of Gaza and, if promised, promises a prompt and sustainable improvement of the catastrophic conditions of living for Palestinians living in Gaza,” the foreign minister wrote in a joint statement.
The Foreign Minister called for postwar plans based on a “solid political and security framework,” but reiterated the need for Hamas to not govern Gaza. Furthermore, European leaders said they support the “central role” of the Palestinian Authorities (PA) in postwar Gaza and the implementation of its reform agenda.
Palestinians will walk through the destruction caused by Israeli Air and ground attacks in Jabaria refugee camps in the northern Gaza Strip on a rainy day on February 12, 2025. (Majdi Fathi/Nurphoto via Getty Images)
Trump is sticking to Gaza's relocation plan as the White House appears to be rejecting Egypt's proposal
The $53 billion Egyptian plan is intended as opposed to President Donald Trump's idea of a US acquisition, coming after Cairo rejected the idea of accepting displaced people on “national security” grounds. Trump's plans will reset Palestinians outside the strip, but Egypt's proposal focuses on Palestinian-led reconstruction efforts.
Both the US and Israel rejected Arab-backed plans for the reconstruction of Gaza. In a statement, Oren Marmorstein, a spokesman for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the plan “could not deal with the reality of the situation after October 7, 2023 and was rooted in an outdated perspective.”
The destroyed building is depicted west of Beitrahia in the northern Gaza Strip on February 11, 2025, in the current ceasefire agreement in the war between Israel and Hamas. (Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images)
At the thrust of Trump's Gaza plan, Arab countries meet in Egypt to discuss alternative proposals
Marmorstein's statement also criticized plans for reliance on the Palestinian Authorities (PA) and the United Nations Relief and Labor Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian Refugees. He says both the PA and UNRWA have “repeated corruption, support for terrorism and failed to resolve the issue.”
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff called the plan “a first step in good faith,” but State Department spokesman Tammy Bruce told reporters that he “does not demand the nature of what President Trump is looking for.”
Additionally, National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes expressed concern about the plan in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.
“The current proposal does not address the reality that Gaza is not currently living there, and residents cannot live humanely in a territory covered in shrapnel and misprone faction.
President Donald Trump is looking right next to a photo of the tile ble in Gaza. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, Adel Hana)
Click here to get the Fox News app
Trump received intense criticism last month when he proposed that the US take over Gaza at a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netnayahu. Trump's proposals include relocating Palestinians and turning the enclave into “Middle Eastern Riviera.”
Fox News' Efrat Lachter contributed to this report.
