Stepping up for Gaza

Visuals from an AI-generated video posted recently on Trump’s official social media accounts. — Screengrabs

ARAB countries countered US President Donald Trump’s proposal to expel Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and transform it into a beachfront destination with their own vision last Tuesday, endorsing a plan to keep the population there, rebuild the territory, and turn it into part of a future Palestinian state without Hamas in government.

The contours of the counterproposal emerged from an emergency summit in Cairo, where Arab countries approved an Egyptian plan to spend US$53bil (RM233.9bil) to rebuild Gaza but not, as Trump has suggested, moving Palestinians out of the enclave.