Arab Leaders Meet at Emergency Summit to Form Plan on Gaza Crisis

Arab leaders convened for an emergency summit in Cairo on Tuesday, facing pressure to come up with something that has proved elusive for decades: a comprehensive Arab vision for Gaza, just as the Israel-Hamas cease-fire is teetering and Israel, buoyed by President Trump’s backing, holds the upper hand.

“Arab Summit: Rescue mission,” read a stark headline on Saturday in Al Ahram, Egypt’s state-owned flagship newspaper, over an article outlining the “uphill task” facing Arab leaders.

The delegates were expected to ratify an Egyptian proposal that would involve spending $53 billion to rebuild Gaza without, as Mr. Trump has suggested, moving Palestinians out of the strip, according to a preliminary draft of the proposal, which was shared with The New York Times by an Arab diplomat.

The proposal also calls for putting a committee of technocrats and other figures unaffiliated with Hamas in charge of the territory for an initial six-month period. The Egyptian government did not respond to a request for comment, but the editor in chief of Al Ahram Weekly, a state-owned media outlet, confirmed the document’s authenticity.

The Arab summit was called in response to Mr. Trump’s proposal last month to expel Palestinians from Gaza, send them to Egypt and Jordan and turn the territory into a tourism hub — an idea that much of the world has rejected as tantamount to ethnic cleansing.

Egypt, Jordan and other Arab allies of the United States have pushed back hard on the plan, saying it would destroy any remaining hope of a Palestinian state and destabilize the entire region.