The Arab League’s emergency summit on Gaza, last week, was never indeed about the future of Gaza, but about the Arabs’ Gaza dilemma and the interplay between Arabs, the United States, and Europe. The emergency summit, called for by Egypt in response to US President Trump’s Gaza-Riviera statements, was a carefully staged political maneuver designed to whitewash the hands of Arab leaders from their responsibility to shelter Gazans and gaslight the international community into believing that a viable solution is possible for the chronic Gaza crisis, which is the most aching core of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, without addressing the crux of the problem—Hamas.
The over 100-page Gaza Plan – mostly maps and engineering diagrams – created by Egypt and unanimously endorsed by the Arab emergency summit, on Wednesday, was a predictable disappointment. It made unrealistic sweeping promises about rebuilding Gaza in five years with a budget of $53 billion, while deliberately avoiding the one prerequisite that would make reconstruction possible: eliminating the root cause of the devastation, which is Hamas’s continued control. There is no chance for peace in Gaza, a resolution for the decades-long Israel-Palestinian conflict, or a chance for regional stability in the Middle East without removing Hamas, an internationally designated terrorist organization, from the top of political power in Gaza and disarming all the Palestinian violent militias operating in all the Palestinian-controlled territories.
Hamas behind the curtains
Hamas’s instantaneous welcoming of the summit’s concluding statement and the “Cairo Declaration,” which mapped the Arabs' next steps against Israel, should have been a red flag to anyone genuinely seeking a peaceful resolution. Ironically, Hamas was not in the room when the Arab leaders convened to discuss the future of Gaza. However, the terrorist organization that started this entire tragedy on October 7, 2023, was dictating issues from behind the scenes, knowing that the summit was a smokescreen, not a serious attempt at creating a new governance system that could replace Hamas.
In an interview with Al-Arabiya TV on the same evening of the summit, the Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdel Atty mentioned that the so-called technocratic administrative committee proposed to govern Gaza was, in fact, pre-approved by both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. In other words, the Arab League’s grand solution is merely a rebranding of the same actors who have enabled Gazans’ suffering for decades, whether it is Hamas from behind the curtains running the puppet show of a technocrat administration or the Palestinian Authority extending its corrupt practices from the West Bank to Gaza.
An Unrealistic Reconstruction Plan
Beyond its political failures, the summit’s proposed reconstruction plan is logistically implausible. Egypt introduced an extensive 120-page proposal filled with maps, engineering blueprints, and a projected five-year timeline for rebuilding Gaza. However, even under the most optimistic circumstances, just clearing the more than 40 billion tons of rubble accumulated from months of warfare would take at least five years. The scale of destruction is staggering, with entire neighborhoods reduced to ruins. According to estimates from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), post-war urban recovery in conflict zones of similar scale—such as Mosul, Iraq—took well over a decade, and that was with substantial international cooperation. The idea that Gaza can be rebuilt in five years under current conditions is, at best, wishful thinking and, at worst, a deliberate deception.
Then, there’s the question of funding and the monitoring of funds. The Gaza Plan estimates the budget for rebuilding Gaza to be $53 billion and proposes wealthy Arab Gulf countries and international bodies, such as the World Bank, as primary funding sources. However, it seems that Arab Gulf countries – excluding Qatar, a staunch supporter of Hamas – are reluctant to contribute to Gaza reconstruction without ironclad guarantees that their money will not be wasted on yet another cycle of violence between Hamas and Israel in the future. The demilitarization of Gaza is the most – if not the only – credible guarantee in this regard, but it is also the issue least addressed by Arab or international stakeholders. At least since the Hamas-led Second Intifada in 2000, Arab Gulf states have contributed billions of dollars to reconstruct and sustain stability in Gaza following repeated episodes of war between Hamas and Israel, mostly initiated by Hamas under the deceitful flag of “resistance.” The Arab League’s wealthiest member states—Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates—made their skepticism clear through their level of representation at the emergency summit. Instead of sending top leadership, both countries were represented only at the level of foreign ministers or vice presidents. This was not an oversight; it was a calculated message.
To contribute to the reconstruction of Gaza once again, Arab Gulf states and other potential funders worldwide need to ensure that their money will not end up in the wrong hands of terrorist militias and eventually recreate the October 7 attack on Israel. Qatar, a staunch supporter of Hamas and long-term financer of Hamas’ government in Gaza, has poured over $1.1 billion in aid to Gaza between 2012 and 2021, much of which ended up financing Hamas’s war machine rather than civilian infrastructure. This cycle has repeated itself too many times for regional powers and the United States to ignore. The reluctance of Saudi Arabia and the UAE to commit new funds is a clear indicator that they recognize the futility of rebuilding Gaza without first ensuring its demilitarization and Hamas’ removal from political power.
Gaza in the Trump-Europe Tit-for-Tat
Perhaps the most telling response to the Arab League summit came from the United States. Immediately after the summit’s underwhelming conclusion, it was reported and then confirmed by the White House that Trump’s special envoy for hostage negotiations, Adam Boehler, is talking directly with Hamas leadership in Doha over a deal to release all the Israeli hostages and end the war with Israel. While some viewed this as a controversial move, it was, in reality, a blunt message by President Trump to Arab states, especially the two key mediators – Egypt and Qatar, that the US cannot rely on their intermediation in the Israel-Hamas talks anymore due to their insistence on keeping Hamas prevailing on the expense of peace and innocent lives both in Gaza and Israel.
In contrast to Trump’s position, the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, and Britain issued a joint statement on Saturday endorsing the Arab Gaza Plan and emphasizing the importance of the Palestinian Authority in sidelining Hamas and eventually stabilizing Gaza. Contrary to logic, the European statement claims that the Gaza Plan is “realistic,” but has not mentioned whether the four Western powers are, individually or collectively via the European Union, are willing to contribute to the huge budget of the Gaza reconstruction plan proposed by Arabs.
Evidently, the European statement is also not about Gaza, just as the Arab summit was not. It may, in fact, relate to Europe’s dilemma regarding Trump. By supporting the Arab nations in the face of Trump’s pressures, the Europeans are actually challenging the American president’s demands on Europe, specifically concerning Ukraine and the NATO. Recently, Trump humiliated Ukrainian President Zelensky at the White House, labeling him a dictator and blaming him for the ongoing war with Russia. Concurrently, Trump intensified pressures on European countries to increase their contributions to NATO’s defense budget and threatened not to send American troops to protect European nations if they faced threats, which constitutes an unprecedented and shocking violation of the treaty upon which NATO's defense doctrine was created.
Arabs’ Dilemma in Gaza
Trump’s sidelining of Arab mediators and not applauding the outcomes of the Arab emergency summit is a devastating blow to the credibility of Arab leadership in resolving the Gaza crisis. The Arab League has long positioned itself as a key player in mediating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet, this summit demonstrated its inability—or unwillingness—to take the necessary steps toward a genuine resolution.
Arab leaders should not be surprised by President Trump’s reaction. Their summit priorities were never about stabilizing Gaza. Instead, the meeting was primarily meant to respond to Trump’s recent comments about the possibility of the U.S. taking a direct role in Gaza’s reconstruction, turning it into a thriving economic hub akin to a Mediterranean Riviera. This idea sent shockwaves through Arab capitals, particularly Cairo and Amman, whose leaders feared that increased Western involvement in Gaza could diminish their own regional influence and weaken their political powers on the domestic fronts. Arabs always wanted to contain the crisis within Gaza, ensuring it remains Israel’s problem rather than allowing the security threat to spill over into their own borders and further threaten their already fragile national security and stability.
Playing the “genocide” card
The reality is that the Arab emergency summit was also about demonizing Israel and throwing the Gaza hot ball in its court. A closer look at the summit’s final statement reveals its true purpose: attacking Israel rather than addressing Gaza’s future. For example, Article 18 of the summit’s Cairo Declaration proposes forming a legal committee to classify Israel’s military actions, and the US calls for “displacement of Gazans” as acts of genocide under the 1948 Genocide Convention.
Playing the “genocide” card once again was a cynical attempt by Arabs to weaponize international law against Israel and, this time, against the United States too. They purposefully ignored the fact that Hamas deliberately embedded its military infrastructure within civilian areas and purposefully used the people of Gaza as human shields. Numerous independent investigations, including reports by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, have confirmed Hamas’s practice of launching rockets from densely populated areas and close to schools and hospitals. Even worse, the Hamas government officials declined calls to put Gaza civilians in shelters or in the Hamas-operated network of tunnels to protect them from the war and labeled it as none of their responsibility.
Add to the above, the inflammatory statements by Syria’s jihadist president, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who showed his real position on Israel for the first time at this summit. Al-Sharaa, who previously said that Syria “does not want to get into war with Israel,” called for a collective Arab aggression against Israel. “The Palestinian cause is a fateful issue for all Arabs,” Al-Sharaaa stated in his speech at the summit. “Strengthening collective Arab action will help unify our ranks to confront challenges, and this step will contribute to finding Arab solutions to common crises.” In a hurried interview with an Al-Arabiya TV anchor on his way out of the summit’s auditorium, Al-Sharaa mentioned that he has plans to confront “Israel’s aggression” but will not declare them in the media.
This focus on vilifying Israel rather than developing a practical roadmap for Gaza’s future is precisely why the Arab League summit failed. Rather than offering real solutions, Arab leaders reverted to their old strategy of using Gaza as a diplomatic tool against Israel and the West. This approach does nothing to help the Palestinian people and only ensures that the conflict continues indefinitely.
Where Do We Go From Here?
The following steps are clear, though they require political courage. The international community must recognize that no long-term solution for Gaza is possible as long as Hamas remains in power. The first and most immediate priority must be the unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas, both living and deceased. The suffering of these individuals and their families cannot be used as a bargaining chip in diplomatic negotiations. Beyond that, any serious reconstruction effort must be preceded by the complete demilitarization of Gaza. This means stripping Hamas of its weapons and ensuring that international aid is used for rebuilding, not rearming. If Arab states are unwilling to facilitate this process, then alternative solutions must be considered—including temporary safe zones for displaced Gazans outside of Gaza until stability is restored.
The Arab League had an opportunity to take meaningful action at this summit. Instead, it chose to engage in political theater. If there is to be any hope for Gaza’s future, the world must move beyond empty summits and demand real, enforceable solutions. Until Hamas is removed, every so-called “peace plan” will be nothing more than another chapter in an endless cycle of destruction.