Faced with US President Donald Trump's plan to force two million Palestinians out of Gaza and place it under US control, Arab countries had to come up with a concrete plan for the "day after the war" in the Gaza Strip. Meeting on Tuesday, March 4, for an extraordinary summit of the Arab League, in the new administrative capital east of Cairo, Egypt, they denounced in unison the "attempts to uproot the Palestinian people" and came up with an alternative for the reconstruction of the enclave and the return of the Palestinian Authority (PA).

The plan, drawn up by Egypt, calls for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip over a five-year period and the removal of Hamas, which was responsible for the deadly October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, as a governing body. The text makes no mention of the demilitarization of the Islamist movement, although this was demanded by Israel and the US, both of which rejected the Arab plan.

The Arab League plans for the Palestinian enclave to be rebuilt in two stages, without population displacement, at a cost estimated at $53.2 billion by the United Nations. The first six-month rapid response phase will be devoted to clearing debris, demining and providing temporary housing for 1.5 million people on seven sites.

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