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Dive deeper into the week’s biggest stories from the Middle East and around the world with The National’s foreign desk. Nuances are often missed in day-to-day headlines. We go Beyond the Headlines by bringing together the voices of experts and those living the news to provide a clearer picture of the region’s shifting political and social landscape.
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Friday Mar 07, 2025
Friday Mar 07, 2025
A resolution adopted by Arab states to rebuild Gaza has been met with praise across the region after 15 months of a brutal war that has battered the strip, but a difficult path lies ahead.
The Egypt-led plan lays out a phased reconstruction effort that ensures Palestinians remain in Gaza. It was drawn up in response to a deeply controversial project for the strip that US President Donald Trump announced last month.
The $53 billion plan proposes establishing a technocratic committee unaffiliated with any political faction to oversee the rebuilding process and administer public services. This would mean Hamas would have to give up its authority.
But Israel and the US have rejected the Arab states’ plan, saying it fails to address the uninhabitable conditions in Gaza. Palestinians in the strip say they are worried reconstruction efforts will fail without US approval.
In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher speaks to The National’s correspondent in Cairo, Hamza Hendawi, and Crisis Group’s senior Palestine analyst, Tahani Mustafa, to examine the details of the resolution and the delicate matter of Palestinian political leadership.
She also speaks to Hussein Ibish, senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute and a columnist for The National. They discuss the challenges that may impede the Arab plan for Gaza if Israel and the US cannot be convinced to support it.