Israel launched a large-scale bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, breaking the fragile ceasefire agreement with Hamas that has been in place since late January.
Hamas has accused Israel of violating the agreement brokered by Egypt, Qatar, and the US and failing to keep to its obligations under the first phase of the ceasefire. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said its resumption of the war came after “Hamas refused time and again to release our hostages and rejected all the proposals it has been given by US Envoy Steve Witkoff and mediators.”
Israel’s military campaign came as Egypt was working alongside Qatar and the US to end the deadly war and kick-start reconstruction.
On Monday, Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty called his counterparts in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, Qatar, Palestine, Turkey, Nigeria, and Indonesia to mobilise support for Egypt’s Gaza reconstruction plan. Abdelatty said discussions also included preparations for an international reconstruction conference to be held in Cairo.
Egypt’s $53 billion plan to rebuild Gaza over five years, with a focus on emergency relief, infrastructure restoration and long-term economic development, calls for the Strip to be governed temporarily by a committee of independent experts and the deployment of international peacekeepers. The committee would be responsible for overseeing humanitarian aid and temporarily managing Gaza’s affairs under the supervision of the Palestinian Authority.
The five-year plan, an alternative to US President Donald Trump’s scheme to forcibly displace two million Gazans from the enclave, has garnered wide international support since it was announced during an Arab Summit in Cairo on 4 March. It was endorsed by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), China, Russia, and the European Union which described it as representing a realistic path towards the reconstruction of Gaza while preserving the right of the Palestinians to stay on their land and have an independent state.
Media reports on Monday, just a few hours before Israel’s attack on Gaza, appeared to confirm that the Trump administration had expressed qualified approval of Egypt’s reconstruction plan. Sources told Sky News Arabia TV that Washington directed questions to Cairo about the plan’s implementation and ways to exclude Hamas from any political or administrative involvement. Sources also confirmed that the administration was exerting pressure on Netanyahu to agree to the Egyptian plan and accept that a Palestinian Authority government committee assume responsibility for administering Gaza.
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Facebook on Monday that Abdelatty had hosted a presentation on the plan with more than 100 representatives of embassies and international organisations.
Abdelatty said the success of Gaza’s reconstruction depends on consolidating the ceasefire in Gaza and enabling the Palestinian Authority to return to the Gaza Strip. He announced that Egypt and Jordan had begun training Palestinian police personnel in preparation for their deployment and pointed out that there is a proposal for the Security Council to study establishing an international presence in Gaza and the West Bank and a framework and timetable that guarantees the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Israel’s bombing of Gaza on Tuesday was condemned by Egypt as a violation of the ceasefire agreement and an attempt to sabotage reconstruction of the enclave.
“The Israeli air strikes targeting the Gaza Strip, which have so far killed more than 300 Palestinians, constitute a flagrant violation of the ceasefire agreement and a dangerous escalation that threatens dire consequences for regional stability,” said a Foreign Ministry statement. It called on the international community to intervene immediately to halt the Israeli aggression and prevent the region from falling into a renewed cycle of violence and counter-violence.
Foreign Ministry sources told Sky News Arabia on Tuesday that despite the new Israeli bombing campaign, Egypt will continue consultations with the international community and the US administration to stop the war on Gaza and implement the next two phases of the ceasefire agreement.
Ayman Mehasseb, deputy chairman of parliament’s Arab Affairs Committee, told Al-Ahram Weekly that Israel’s air strikes are an attempt to sabotage Egypt’s reconstruction plan “after it got worldwide support, including initial approval from the Trump administration.”
“The extremist Israeli government led by Netanyahu decided to move quickly to disrupt it and thwart any attempts to find a political solution to the conflict in Gaza.”
Mehasseb said Egypt’s plan, which has Islamic and Arab backing, remains the only hope of ending the conflict.
President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi said that Egypt’s commitment to regional security and stability meant that since day one of the war on Gaza it has been working to reach a ceasefire in Gaza in cooperation with Qatar and the US.
“We will continue our efforts to achieve a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza and maintain calm between the Palestinians and Israelis,” said Al-Sisi.
In a speech before the Egyptian Military Academy on 12 March, President Al-Sisi underlined that “Egypt has chosen peace as a strategic option and its plan for reconstructing Gaza is a clear evidence of this.”
On Egypt’s 1979 Peace Treaty with Israel, he said: “This treaty obligates each party to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the other, thus imposing a legal obligation not to create a situation that would expel the Palestinian population from its territory, as this constitutes a violation of the stipulation to respect the security of borders.”
Al-Sisi spoke amid heightened concerns among Egyptians that Israel’s military presence in the Philadelphi Corridor represents a breach of its treaty with Egypt. His words were widely seen as a response to Israeli intelligence and media reports that Egypt is quietly repositioning its forces in Sinai, an action that, if confirmed, could be a direct violation of the 1979 Camp David Accords. The Israeli media also claimed that Israel has begun covert intelligence-gathering operations to track Egyptian military movements in Sinai.
“I know that Egyptians are worried about armed conflicts in the region and their impact on the Egyptian economy,” said Al-Sisi. “Yes, we have been living through very difficult economic conditions in the last two years, but Egypt is proceeding with steady and measured steps to contain the negative impact of conflicts and economic conditions are improving.”
Al-Sisi revealed that Egypt is losing $800 million a month in Suez Canal revenues due to attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 20 March, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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