Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said Tuesday that the Palestinian Authority would reassume control over the Gaza Strip under a post-war plan announced by Arab leaders.
Abbas said in his opening remarks at an Arab League summit in Cairo that his administration could assume "its duties in the Gaza Strip through its governmental institutions, and a working committee has been formed for this purpose".
Under the post-war plan, the Palestinian Authority's security apparatus would take "on its responsibilities after restructuring and unifying the cadres present in the Gaza Strip and training them in Egypt and Jordan".
The Gaza Strip has been governed by the Islamist militant group Hamas since 2007, when it seized control from the PA after being blocked from exercising real power despite winning a parliamentary election the previous year.
Arab leaders met in Cairo on Tuesday to discuss a plan for Gaza's reconstruction to counter US President Donald Trump's proposal to take over the territory and turn it into the "Riviera of the Middle East".
In his opening remarks, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said that his government's plan for Gaza's post-war reconstruction would ensure that a committee under the PA runs the territory.
"Egypt, in cooperation with its brothers in Palestine, worked to form an administrative committee of independent Palestinian professionals and technocrats entrusted with managing the Gaza Strip based on the expertise of its members," Sisi said.
Sisi added that the plan proposed by Egypt would ensure that "the Palestinian people remain on their land".
Lasting peace
According to a draft version of the Egyptian plan seen by AFP, the committee would manage the territory for a transitional period of six months before the PA resumes full control.
The Arab League summit follows renewed backing of Trump's plan from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who labelled it "visionary and innovative".
In his speech at the summit, Sisi mentioned the historic, US-brokered 1979 peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, saying it had transformed "enmity, war and the desire for revenge into lasting peace and reciprocal diplomatic relations".
"The time has come to adopt and launch a serious and effective political process that leads to a just and lasting solution to the Palestinian cause... I am confident that President Trump is capable of doing that," he added.
Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit warned in his remarks at the summit that forcible displacement of Palestinians would stoke "more tension" in the region, while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he strongly endorsed the "Arab-led initiative" to rebuild Gaza.
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, whose retaliatory offensive left the territory largely in ruins and created a devastating humanitarian crisis.
With AFP
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