(Reuters) – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday he will join an emergency meeting of the Arab League in Cairo next week to discuss the reconstruction of Gaza, as Arab states weigh a post-war plan for the Palestinian enclave to counter U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal.
Arab countries have rejected Trump’s idea that the U.S. should take over Gaza and redevelop it as a “Riviera of the Middle East” with its population displaced into Egypt and Jordan. But they have yet to announce their own plan.
Guterres said Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, must be treated as one and governed by a Palestinian government.
He said Gaza needed to remain “an independent, democratic and sovereign Palestinian state, with no reductions in its territory or forced transfer of its population.”
Guterres said he would outline priorities at the March 4 Arab League meeting, including that the ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas must hold and that there must be a clear political framework towards Gaza’s recovery, reconstruction and lasting stability.
He said he will also seek an urgent de-escalation of the situation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Israeli-Palestinian violence has spiked.
“Tuesday’s Summit is an opportunity for leaders across the Arab world to come together and discuss the elements required to deliver peace and stability in Gaza,” Guterres told reporters at the United Nations.
There is no sign of agreement over Gaza’s future, either among or between Israelis and Palestinians, or between Western and Arab governments.
Discussions on an end to the war are complicated by the lack of any agreement over basic questions such as how Gaza would be governed, how its security would be managed, how it could be rebuilt, and who would pay for that.
The Gaza war is the latest in decades of conflict between Israel and Palestinians.
It began on Oct. 7, 2023, when fighters from the Islamist group Hamas stormed border defences from Gaza and attacked Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and seizing about 250 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
The Israeli military campaign in retaliation has killed more than 48,000 people, according to Palestinian authorities, while destroying large swathes of the tiny, crowded territory and leaving most of its 2 million inhabitants homeless.
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by David Gregorio)
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