Egypt denied a report on Friday that it is willing to allow half a million Palestinians to be relocated temporarily from the Gaza Strip to the northern Sinai Peninsula.
“Egypt’s position is firm in its absolute and final rejection of any attempt to displace Palestinians, and the Cairo Arab Summit’s emergency plan for reconstruction is based on it,” the Egyptian State Information Service said, according to Israeli media.
Earlier, the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Akhbar newspaper reported that Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi had expressed support for the idea during recent meetings with Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
During a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in February, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a proposal to relocate Gazans.
“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip,” said Trump, adding: “We’ll own it. … We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal … the Riviera of the Middle East.”
He later suggested that Gaza’s entire population should go to other countries.
While Netanyahu praised Trump’s Gaza initiative as “visionary and innovative,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio subsequently said that the American administration was open to “a better plan” from Arab nations.
In response, Cairo proposed replacing the Hamas terrorist group with interim governing bodies managed by Arab, Muslim and Western states. An Arab League summit in Egypt earlier this month gave initial backing to the plan, with a draft statement stressing that no significant international funding for Gaza’s rehabilitation will be provided as long as Hamas remains the dominant force.
Instead, the plan calls for an International Stabilization Force led by Arab states, with funding through donor conferences, without placing the Palestinian Authority in a central role. Rather, a steering board comprising Arab countries, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the United States and the European Union would oversee implementation.
The Egyptian plan notably rejected Trump’s proposal to resettle Gaza’s residents during the enclave’s reconstruction into a global economic hub.
