Guest writer
Ellen Ioanes
Guest writer
Ellen Ioanes is a foreign affairs reporter based in New York City. She was previously a reporter for Vox, where she covered world politics and breaking news, and her work has appeared in Foreign Policy, the Guardian, Business Insider, and more. She is a graduate of Columbia University’s graduate school of journalism and Davidson College.
Mar 04, 2025
Egypt held a summit in Cairo on Tuesday, bringing together Arab states to forge a path forward for Gaza. The host proposed a $53 billion, five-year plan to rebuild the Palestinian enclave, which has been largely destroyed during the 15-month war between Israel and Hamas. The idea was to rally Arab League countries to fund and support the plan as a counterweight to US President Donald Trump’s proposal to turn Gaza into a Mediterranean “Riviera” and forcibly displace Palestinians from the region.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said the new plan was endorsed by Arab League leaders on Tuesday. Attendees are meant to reconvene for further discussion in Egypt next month.
What’s in Egypt’s plan? It calls for keeping Palestinians in Gaza and for an independent Palestinian body — not Hamas — to oversee Gaza during the reconstruction. In the end, there would be housing for 3 million people, as well as an airport, industrial centers, hotels, and other major developments.
But none of this can happen without a sustained ceasefire and a permanent end to conflict in Gaza. Meanwhile, talks about the second phase of the ceasefire have been halted amid disagreements – Israel now wants more hostages released to initiate the next stage of the three-phase ceasefire and is demanding Hamas’s disarmament (a red line for the militant group). The first stage expired Saturday without a clear path forward. In the meantime, Israel has stopped the flow of aid into Gaza, and while the enclave has supplies for now, the stoppage raises concerns about dwindling stockpiles in the weeks ahead.
