Egypt says Gaza should be rebuilt without displacing Palestinians

DUBAI - Egypt’s President called on the international community on Feb 19 to adopt a plan to

rebuild war-torn Gaza

without displacing Palestinians, after a proposal by US President Donald Trump angered Arabs with his own vision for the enclave.

“We stressed the importance of the international community adopting a plan to reconstruct the Gaza Strip without displacing Palestinians – I repeat, without displacing Palestinians from their lands,” President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told a press conference with Spain’s Prime Minister in Madrid.

Mr Trump has proposed a plan to redevelop the tiny enclave into an international beach resort after resettling its Palestinian inhabitants. He called on Jordan and Egypt to take in Palestinians.

Egypt and Jordan, along with

other Arab states

, rejected the plan and said they will work on an alternative to counter Mr Trump's proposal, but there are no signs they are making serious progress.

Mr Sisi added that the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA), which provides aid, health and education services to millions in the Palestinian territories and neighboring Arab countries of Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, was indispensable for Palestinians.

UNRWA said its operations in the Gaza Strip and West Bank will suffer after an Israeli law banned it in October on Israeli land – including East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in a move not recognised internationally – and contact with Israeli authorities from Jan 30.

The United Arab Emirates’ President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Feb 19 that his country rejects a proposal to displace Palestinians from their land, the Emirati state news agency WAM reported.

The leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE and Qatar are expected to discuss the plan in Riyadh in February before it can be presented to an Arab League summit in Cairo in March. REUTERS