Cairo, 4 March 2025 (dpa/MIA) - Arab leaders are meeting on Tuesday to discuss plans for the potential reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

With this summit in Cairo, the Egyptian government aims to counter US President Donald Trump's controversial plans to permanently "resettle" Palestinians to Arab countries.

In addition to senior representatives from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, EU Council President António Costa is also expected.

The United Nations estimates the costs for rebuilding the area, which lies in ruins due to the war between Israel and Hamas, to be $53 billion.

In discussions about the future of Gaza, many questions remain unresolved, such as who would control and secure the area after the end of the war.

Moreover, the ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas is on a knife edge, and fighting could reignite.

The war was triggered by the worst massacre in Israel's history, committed on October 7, 2023, by Hamas and other extremist Palestinian organizations in Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip.

Trump suggested transforming Gaza into a "Riviera of the Middle East" and permanently "resettling" the approximately 2 million Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan, prompting the UN to warn of "ethnic cleansing." Trump's remarks sparked outrage in the Arab world and beyond.

Photo: EPA