 "Palestinians walk surrounded by the rubble of destroyed homes and building in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, Friday, March 7, 2025. Image- AP")
Britain, France, Germany and Italy on Saturday backed a proposal by Muslim-majority nations to rebuild Gaza as a “realistic path”.
The counter-proposal to US President Donald Trump’s plan to take over Gaza and displace its residents “promises – if implemented – swift and sustainable improvement of the catastrophic living conditions for the Palestinians living in Gaza,” the foreign ministers of the four countries said in a joint statement.
The plan proposed by Egypt and endorsed by Arab leaders on Tuesday seeks to rebuild the Gaza Strip without displacing its 2.4 million residents, who have endured 17 months of war. Unlike U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to transform Gaza into a “West Asia Riviera,” the Egyptian plan focuses on reconstruction while keeping the population in place.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), representing the Muslim world, has called on the international community and funding institutions to swiftly support the plan. However, the proposal, which does not assign a role to Hamas, the governing authority in Gaza, has been rejected by both Israel and the U.S.
Despite this, European foreign ministers have praised the plan, describing it as “a realistic path to the reconstruction of Gaza.”
“We are clear that Hamas must neither govern Gaza nor be a threat to Israel any more,” they said in their statement.
“We commend the serious efforts of all involved stakeholders and appreciate the important signal the Arab states have sent by jointly developing this recovery and reconstruction plan,” the statement added.
“We are committed to working with the Arab initiative, the Palestinians and Israel to address those issues together.”
With inputs from agencies