By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Worthy News) – Arab leaders unanimously agreed on a five-year $53 billion plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip without displacing Palestinians to counter U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s proposal to “take over” the coastal enclave and turn it into “The Riviera of the Middle East.”
The announcement in Cairo was condemned by Israel, which has expressed concern about attacks carried out from Gaza by Hamas and its allies despise a proposal Tuesday to deploy international peacekeepers.
Yet the White House said Trump welcomes the “input from our Arab partners.”
Worthy News learned that the heads of state and senior officials from the 22-member League of Arab States approved an Egyptian proposal for a phased reconstruction plan.
The plan, laid out in a 91-page document would proceed in three phases, from an initial period focused on clearing debris to a more comprehensive reconstruction of communities and infrastructure over five years.
It proposes moving Palestinians among seven sites with temporary housing while segments of the enclave are rebuilt sequentially. M
Egypt and Jordan would take the lead in training a Palestinian police force “to enable the Palestinian Authority to return to its governing duties in the Gaza Strip,” the document said.
ISRAEL CONCERNED
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has described President Trump’s plan as “visionary,” has repeatedly ruled out any future role for Hamas, but also for the Palestinian Authority.
The other sensitive security issue was dealt with by calling the United Nations Security Council to deploy international peacekeepers. Officials said a major international conference will be held next month to raise the huge sums of money necessary for this rebuilding project.
Worthy News learned that if approved by Arab leaders as expected, “Phase One” would last two years and involve the construction of 200,000 housing units at a total cost of 20 billion dollars.
“Phase Two” will take two and a half years and include the construction of an additional 200,000 housing units and the creation of an airport in Gaza, which will cost 30 billion dollars. Yet Israel’s government claimed the summit’s result “fails to address the realities of the situation following October 7, 2023″.”
It was a reference to the 1,200 people killed and about 250 abducted when Hamas entered Israel to carry out what Israel described as “the worst atrocity against Jews since the Holocaust,” also known as Shoah.
Nearly 49,000 Palestinians were killed in the war that followed, according to Hamas-controlled authorities, and almost 70 percent of buildings, including some 245,000 homes, were destroyed, added the United Nations.
The death toll has been difficult to verify independently, and Gaza’s Hamas-led Ministry of Health does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.
Israel has accused Hamas fighters of using civilians as “human shields,” adding to the death toll.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
Israeli officials are preparing to brief President Donald Trump on new military options against Iran when he meets later this month with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, amid growing concern that Tehran is rapidly rebuilding its ballistic missile program and restoring damaged air defenses, according to an NBC News exclusive citing a person with direct knowledge of the plans and multiple former U.S. officials.
Israel, Greece, and Cyprus have agreed to accelerate a long-discussed regional energy and security partnership, pledging deeper cooperation amid rising instability in the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean.
The United States has seized another crude oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, marking the second such operation in less than two weeks as President Donald Trump intensifies pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his government.
Ukraine’s military says it is attempting to halt a Russian incursion into a border village in the northeastern Sumy region, even as diplomatic efforts continue to seek an end to the nearly four-year war.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called for “peaceful coexistence” as his nation marked the first anniversary of a deadly car-ramming attack at a Christmas market in eastern Germany that revived a debate about the influx of migrants from mainly Muslim countries.
With Christmas approaching, a Christian worker and his family have fled a brick kiln in Pakistan where they were effectively held in modern-day slavery by their Muslim employer, amid continuing concerns over the safety of Christian girls in the mainly Islamic nation, investigators told Worthy News.
Jerusalem will host a high-level trilateral summit on Monday as Israel, Greece, and Cyprus move to deepen security, energy, and strategic cooperation amid growing concern over Turkey’s expanding military posture in the eastern Mediterranean.