Egypt is training hundreds of Palestinians to take on security roles in Gaza when the Israel-Hamas war ends, the country’s foreign minister told a Saudi news channel on Wednesday.
In a clip of the interview with the Al Arabiya channel, which has yet to be aired, Badr Abdelatty said Egypt has a clear plan for security and governance arrangements in Gaza after the war ends and it is training Palestinian operatives who will be deployed in the Gaza Strip and assume security roles.
Egypt first unveiled its proposal for Gaza’s security and future in March, and Abdelatty has mentioned operationalizing it since then. His statement on Wednesday indicated that the country has continued to put the plan into action, despite the war still raging and enduring disputes over who will govern Gaza once it ends.
“Egypt is training hundreds of Palestinians to take on security responsibilities in Gaza,” he said in the interview.
In April, Abdelatty told the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, a conference in Turkey, that Egypt had begun recruiting Palestinian security operatives who would be trained to oversee security in Gaza.
“We are empowering the Palestinian policemen, providing training and recruiting new members in order to be deployed in Gaza to take care of the law, order and security in Gaza,” he said at the time. “And, of course, we are standing ready for deployment of an international force – protection, peacekeeping, whatever we call it — to be there in order to provide security and protection for the Palestinians.”
The Egyptian training program is a piece of a $53 billion plan Cairo proposed in March for Gaza’s reconstruction that was adopted by the Arab League and the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation. That plan was meant as a counter to US President Donald Trump’s announcement the previous month that the US would “take over” Gaza and relocate its Palestinian residents.
Trump’s plan drew broad backlash from the international community, Arab countries and members of both major US parties, and he has not focused on it in recent months. But leaders of the Israeli far right have embraced it as a blueprint for Israeli resettlement of Gaza. Right-wing lawmakers held a conference last week, headlined by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, on Israel annexing the Strip and making a “Gaza Riviera” a reality.
On Monday, Israel’s cabinet held a meeting in which ministers reportedly discussed Israel occupying Gaza and formally annexing parts of it, after talks broke down in Qatar last week over a possible ceasefire in Gaza and the release of some of the 50 hostages held there by Hamas.
That Israeli vision runs counter to the one advanced by Egypt and the Arab League, which envisions the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority governing a postwar Gaza as a steppingstone to Palestinian statehood. The Arab League again endorsed that idea in a declaration on Tuesday at a United Nations conference on a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.
“In the context of ending the war in Gaza, Hamas must end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, with international engagement and support, in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Palestinian State,” said the declaration.
The document also condemned the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack that began the war. “We also condemn the attacks by Israel against civilians in Gaza and civilian infrastructure, siege and starvation, which have resulted in a devastating humanitarian catastrophe and protection crisis,” it said.
International pressure on Israel has intensified in recent weeks over widespread reports of starvation in Gaza. In response, European countries have threatened Israel with a range of measures. France has said it will recognize a Palestinian state and the United Kingdom has said it will follow suit unless Israel ends the war in Gaza and works toward peace with the Palestinians.
Israel has rejected Palestinian statehood as a reward to Hamas for the October 7 attack, and says recognition of such a state pushes peace between the sides further away.
Abdelatty said in the clip of the Saudi interview that Egypt is still committed to reaching a ceasefire and holds daily talks with Qatar and the United States amid efforts to do so. He accused Israel of using food as a weapon, saying the hunger in Gaza is “beyond imagination.”
AFP contributed to this report.