Published in the Jerusalem Post, 7 July 2025
The president of the African Union, Joao Lourenco, also attended the Cairo summit and gave the plan his explicit support together with a commitment to help realize it.
Since then it has been endorsed by the EU. Statements from the EU
High Representative, Kaja Kallas, and the President of the European
Council, Antonio Costa, confirm that the EU sees the plan as a serious basis
for discussions on Gaza's future. They have offered "concrete
support" from all 27 member countries.
In addition France, Germany, Italy and the UK have all separately
backed it.
The Egyptian initiative addresses both immediate humanitarian needs and the
long-term governance and reconstruction of Gaza. It envisages a
three-phase process: first, immediate humanitarian action; then a
multi-year reconstruction effort; and finally establishing a new governance
structure for Gaza.
The first phase is planned to be
completed in about six months; the rebuilding and governance reforms are
estimated to last about a further four to five years.
The plan explicitly excludes Hamas from any involvement in
the future governance of Gaza. It also bars the Palestinian
Authority (PA) from direct administrative control, but it does envisage an
umbrella-type council composed of Palestinian technocrats, operating under the
auspices of the PA but supported by an international Governance Assistance
Mission. In addition, to maintain security during the transition, it
proposes the establishment of an International Stabilization Force to be led by
Arab states.
It
is obvious that the cost of rebuilding Gaza’s towns and cities and their
infrastructure will be astronomic. Egypt’s three-phase plan puts it
at $53 billion, to be expended over the 5 years. For the first six
months of humanitarian relief, the reconstruction program is costed at $3
billion. Phase two, which would involve rebuilding infrastructure
such as roads and utilities, and constructing 200,000 permanent housing units,
would cost some £20 billion. The final phase, lasting two-and-a-half
years and costing $30 billion, aims to complete infrastructure, build another
200,000 housing units, and develop industrial zones, ports, and an airport.
To finance this $53 billion plan, Egypt proposes
establishing an internationally supervised trust fund to receive, channel and
manage financial support from a wide range of international donors. It
specifically calls for the involvement of the World Bank:
"a World Bank-overseen trust fund will be established to receive pledges
to implement the early recovery and reconstruction plan."
The plan proposes that Egypt will host an international conference, in cooperation with the UN, to coordinate donor contributions, with the World Bank providing oversight to ensure transparency and effective fund management. The World Bank has a long-standing presence in Gaza and the West Bank, where it has been managing similar trust funds and coordinating with international donors for development and reconstruction projects.
The Egyptian plan envisions mobilizing diverse sources of international aid and investment, so organizations like the UN and global financial institutions, including the World Bank and the EU, are expected to offer financial support. Development agencies, investment funds, and development banks from various countries will also be targeted.
Egypt is a strategic ally of the US, already supported to the tune of over $1 billion annually, so it is not impossible to envisage the US assisting in the reconstruction program. Washington is interested in regional stability, counterterrorism, and preventing refugee spillover into other regions. Support could be either by way of specialist construction and infrastructure suppliers contracted by the administration, or by direct financial donation provided under the guise of humanitarian aid – a sort of post-conflict Marshall Plan-style initiative.
Another possible major donor is
China. China and Egypt are already tied closely since Chinese firms are
involved in building Egypt’s new administrative capital and in developing a
major industrial zone in the Suez Canal region. China may well respond
favorably to a request from Egypt to help realize its Gaza reconstruction plan,
perhaps regarding it as an opportunity to strengthen its strategic position in
the Middle East.
China is already investing
heavily in the region through its Belt and Road initiative, as well as with
strategic investments, trade partnerships, infrastructure development, and
diplomatic engagement. Enjoying a relatively neutral position in the Israel-Palestine
conflict, China is in a formal strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia and has
close ties with the UAE, which is a key re-export hub for Chinese goods to the
region and Africa. Chinese firms are involved in post-war infrastructure
rebuilding in Iraq, and China is heavily invested in infrastructure and
renewable energy projects in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.
Meanwhile Egypt’s Ministry of
Foreign Affairs is actively preparing a major donor conference aimed at
securing the required financial commitments. Egypt’s plan explicitly calls for
broad-based international attendance, including Arab states, the EU,
China, the US, and other global actors.
Eyebrows may be raised at the
idea of the US and China sitting down together to
discuss the financing of Gaza reconstruction, but in fact they
have both taken part in similar multilateral donor processes in the past, even
when their broader relations were tense. Examples are the 2019 Global Fund’s
conference, and the International Donors’ conference “Together for the People
in Turkey and Syria” in 2023. The urgency of Gaza’s humanitarian crisis and the
need for broad international legitimacy make their participation likely.
Both would expect to benefit from
contracts worth millions of dollars to construct or reconstruct elements of a
restored Gaza, but even so the program’s directors may need to look further
afield to find specialist firms to undertake elements of the extensive building
and infrastructure operations required. When
the tenders go out for these lucrative contracts, competition will be fierce.
As for the donor conference, it
has waited for an end to hostilities in the region. Given the current
political climate, it might soon be convened.
No comments:
Post a Comment