Arab states are walking a fine line in trying to propose a governing structure that is legitimate in the eyes of Palestinians and Arabs, but also acceptable to Israel, which has excluded not only Hamas but also the internationally recognized West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.
US President Donald J. Trump’s “shock therapy” for Gaza appears to be working. Angered by Mr. Trump’s assertion that the United States would take control of the Gaza Strip, relocate its 2.3 million residents to Egypt, Jordan and elsewhere, and turn it into a luxury beach destination, the Arab world has been forced to devise an alternative plan. Mr. Trump has accepted that reality. Speaking on Fox News radio hours after the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt and Jordan discussed an alternative plan at an informal summit in Riyadh, Mr. Trump defended his plan, stressing that it was merely a recommendation and not something he would impose. The leaders gathered in Riyadh are waiting for an Arab summit, scheduled for March 4 in Cairo, to endorse their plan.
“I’ll tell you the way to do it: it’s my plan. I think it’s the plan that really works. But I’m not forcing it. I’m just going to sit back and recommend it… Another way would be to do it with the people who are there… But the question is: Can you destroy (Hamas)? They’re so intertwined with the people,” Mr. Trump said.
Following Mr. Trump’s initial approach to implementing his plan, this week Israel reportedly dropped leaflets in Arabic on Gaza, threatening: “We will force you to leave, whether you accept it or not… The map of the world will not change if all the people of Gaza disappear from existence, and no one will ask about you,” the leaflet read. Meanwhile, Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s Middle East envoy, appeared on stage at an investment conference in Miami with the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who was the mastermind behind the concept of turning Gaza into a luxury coastal resort.
“We talk about bringing together people from all over the world – great planners, developers and architects, discussing different ideas and options,” Mr. Witkoff said.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Witkoff was considering hosting a White House meeting with real estate developers and business leaders to launch an initiative to rebuild Gaza. “You have to look at the devastation that exists in Gaza today. There are about 30,000 unexploded shells there. The conditions are terrible. I don’t know why anyone would want to live there today. To me, it’s completely illogical,” Mr. Witkoff said. He visited Gaza earlier this month, becoming the first senior American official to visit the Gaza Strip in 15 years. Eager to secure a piece of the project, Khalaf al-Habtoor, a real estate tycoon from the United Arab Emirates, has presented a 30-page plan to rebuild Gaza in a matter of years, rather than decades.
Mr. Al-Habtoor’s plan appears to be in line with an Egyptian proposal, which envisions the reconstruction of Gaza in three phases over five years. This Egyptian plan is at the heart of what leaders gathered in Riyadh hope to present at the Arab summit in Cairo.
To convince Mr. Trump, the Arab plan must propose an interim governing structure that excludes Hamas and offer a credible, well-funded plan for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Gaza, without displacing its population. This week, the United Nations, the World Bank and the European Union estimated that rebuilding the war-torn Gaza Strip would cost about $53 billion. Meanwhile, Gulf states have expressed a willingness to make an initial contribution of $20 billion. Arab states are walking a fine line in trying to propose a governing structure that is legitimate in the eyes of Palestinians and Arabs but also acceptable to Israel, which has excluded not only Hamas but also the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank.
To achieve this goal, the Arab plan envisages the creation of a temporary governing body composed of technocrats and well-known personalities from Gaza, as well as an Arab contingent that will train a Palestinian police force composed of individuals without ties to political or military groups.
To achieve this, the Arab states must break a “vicious circle.” They want the interim administration of Gaza to be linked to a process leading to the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, something that is taboo for Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. To legitimize Arab states’ engagement, the Palestinian Authority will need to invite them to participate in the post-war rehabilitation of Gaza, even though they see the Authority as corrupt, dysfunctional, and in need of reform, and have treated it as an afterthought in the run-up to the Riyadh summit.
The invitation would confirm the Arab and Palestinian insistence that Gaza is Palestinian and an integral part of a future Palestinian state, and not a territory that can be taken, as Mr. Trump suggested with his plan to develop real estate for “the peoples of the world.” Restoring Palestinian rights to Gaza would also serve to push for a lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, ensuring that investment in the Gaza Strip is not undermined by a possible future escalation of the war.
“To rebuild a Palestinian state, yes. To rebuild territory that the Israelis can destroy again in a few years, I don’t think that would be a reasonable thing to do,” the Saudi ambassador to Britain, Khalid bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, said in an interview in January. The question is, what will the Gulf states demand in exchange for reconstruction funding? In an ironic twist, the Gulf states could adopt Mr. Trump’s proposal to receive commercial rights in exchange for reconstruction funding. Last year, the United Arab Emirates helped Egypt secure an extended $8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), completing a $35 billion deal to develop a significant coastal strip on the North African country’s Mediterranean coast. Arab and Palestinian legitimacy is key to getting Hamas to cooperate.
Hamas has said it is willing to hand over Gaza’s governance to a national committee, if it has a role in choosing its members, but has rejected the idea of disarmament.
Hamas has shown flexibility by agreeing, in the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire, to have US and Egyptian military contractors replace Israeli troops in the Netzarim Corridor, which separates northern Gaza from the rest of the Strip. Hamas has used the prisoner swap in the Gaza ceasefire to demonstrate, after the 15-month Israeli offensive, its army’s stable command and control, discipline and ability to control public spaces and stage high-profile events. Hundreds of fighters emerged during the prisoner swap dressed in clean uniforms and armed with well-maintained automatic weapons and trucks loaded with automatic weapons.
To underscore its insistence on retaining the right to use violence until Israelis and Palestinians negotiate an end to their conflict, Hamas this week staged a parade of the black coffins of four Israeli hostages, including two children, killed in the fighting. The bodies were the first exchange of Israeli dead during the month-long ceasefire.
Before handing them over to the International Red Cross, Hamas placed the coffins on a stage surrounded by armed fighters dressed in black and camouflage uniforms, standing in front of a banner blaming Israel for the deaths of the hostages. The coffins had plaques announcing the date of the victims’ “arrest,” Hamas’s euphemism for the abduction of innocent civilians during its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. The parade sparked outrage in Israel and internationally, adding to tensions, especially after the Israeli military concluded that one of the bodies of the four killed had been misidentified by Hamas as Shiri Bibas, the mother of the two children killed. Ms. Bibas and her children, Kfir (9 months) and Ariel (4 years), became symbols of the horror of the October 7 attack, in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 251 others were kidnapped. Hamas released Yarden Bibas, Ms. Bibas’s husband and the children’s father, in a prisoner swap earlier this month.
The Israeli military said the remains did not match Ms. Bibas’s DNA or that of any of the other 39 dead hostages who are expected to be released. Whether by mistake or design, Hamas’s release of the wrong body has strengthened Netanyahu’s opposition to any interim agreement in Gaza that could open the door to Palestinian sovereignty in Gaza or the West Bank, complicating Arab efforts to offer a viable alternative to Trump’s proposal.
Hamas has thus thrown the ball into Mr. Trump’s hands as Israel and the group prepare to negotiate the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire, which would include Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and the establishment of an interim governing structure. The first phase of the ceasefire is expected to end in the first week of March. “We will act decisively to bring Shirin home, along with all our hostages – both living and dead – and we will ensure that Hamas pays the full price for this outrageous and vile violation of the agreement,” Mr. Netanyahu said. (The Times of Israel)
