By Álvaro Mellizo
New istrative Capital, Egypt, EFE).- Egypt received the of Arab League, African Union, EU and UN Secretary-General for its plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip and ensure the Palestinian population can live in the enclave.
Egypt’s proposal opposed the projects advocated by the United States and Israel, which seek the relocation of the Gazan people.
Tuesday’s endorsement for Egypt’s plan came at the conclusion of the extraordinary summit of Arab League leaders held in the New istrative Capital, some 45 kilometers (27 miles) from Cairo.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres, European Council President António Costa, and African Union President João Lourenço of Angola, also attended the meeting.
The internotional is an endorsement of the Egyptian government of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, whose country, like Jordan, is under pressure by United States president Donald Trump.
The US president has said in multiple ocassion that Jordan and Egypt should accept hundreds of thousands of Palestinians on its territory, and has even suggested that the US should take control of the enclave and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Egypt’s billion-dollar project to rebuild Gaza
The Egyptian plan, now shared by all the Arab League countries, involves a 53 billion-dollar investment over five years.
Initially, there will be a six-month “early recovery” phase, during which 3 billion dollars will be spent on rubble removal and the establishment of seven areas to temporarily house more than 1.5 million Palestinians.
The first phase of reconstruction would take two years and will cost around 20 billion dollars, in order to clear rubble, restore some 60,000 “partially destroyed” homes, and build 200,000 new ones.
There are also plans to build two desalination plants, two drinking water reservoirs, two irrigation reservoirs, and two sewage treatment plants.
Two and a half years and a further 30 billion dollars will be needed to complete the second and final phase of reconstruction, which will see the completion of essential network services.
Gaza will have some 460,000 housing units to accommodate 3 million people.
The aforementioned will be istered by an independent committee of technocrats, while the Palestinian Authority will be trained to manage the entire bureaucratic and security apparatus in the Strip.
On security issues, the plan calls for a request to the UN Security Council for the establishment of a contingent of international forces.
The money will be raised at a summit in Cairo in the coming weeks.
The UN, the European Union and the African Union showed their explicit for the plan and announced that they would help to implement it, stressing their rejection of the forced expulsion of the Palestinians.
Guterres said that “the true foundation of recovery in Gaza will be more than concrete and steel. It will be dignity, self-determination, and security. This means staying true to the bedrock of international law. It means rejecting any form of ethnic cleansing. And it means forging a political solution.”
António Costa said the EU backed the initiative and was ready to provide “concrete” for the plan in pursuit of a two-state solution, “where Palestine and Israel can live side by side in peace and security and free from the threat of terrorism.”
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi called for the “regional and international that is key to rebuilding the (Palestinian) nation and maintaining the survival of the land.”
Despite the explicit rejection of Trump’s plan, the Arab leader said he “firmly believes” that the US president is a leader “capable of carrying out his mission and that his sincere desire is to defuse regional tensions.”
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also urged Trump to the Arab plan in the face of the “irresponsible and inhumane” expulsion of Palestinians from their land. EFE
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