Egypt is continuing its mediation and negotiation efforts, in partnership with the US and Qatar, to deliver more humanitarian aid to Gaza and achieve a ceasefire that includes the cessation of Tel Aviv’s military operation in Gaza City and other cities, the release of the Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas, both living and dead, and the release of a significant number of Palestinian prisoners.
Egypt also continues to mobilise regional and international support for the Gaza Reconstruction Plan developed by Cairo and adopted by the Arab League. The plan proposes sequential phases to end the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, at a total cost of $53 billion over five years.
It begins with pressuring Israel to allow the entry of sufficient food, water, and medicine to avert the threat of famine for Gazans, followed by the import of reconstruction equipment and materials and the necessary provision of basic services.
This will be followed by Egyptian, regional, and international efforts to remove the massive amounts of rubble that have accumulated throughout the Strip and provide housing units and mobile healthcare for more than two million Palestinians.
The reconstruction plan, which has received support from UN agencies, China, Russia, the European Union, and several regional blocs, also includes the identification of seven areas in Gaza to which residents will be temporarily relocated so that homes, infrastructure, and facilities can be rebuilt (first in southern Gaza, then in the central and northern sections).
It also includes an agreement on mechanisms for governing Gaza and ensuring security under the supervision of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and with Arab support, as well as mechanisms for managing the weapons of Hamas and other factions by placing them under the authority of the PA.
The plan proposes that Egyptian and Jordanian security forces train Palestinian government security forces before they assume their duties in Gaza. Hamas and other Palestinian armed factions would be subject to the supervision of these Palestinian security forces with Arab support and backing. A Palestinian Governing Committee for Gaza would be formed composed of independent technocrats.
The Egyptian-Arab reconstruction plan, which has become a cornerstone of Cairo’s diplomatic engagement, calls on the United Nations to reach an agreement on the formation and deployment of peacekeeping forces in Gaza and the West Bank to reduce violence and provide security, as well as on the return of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to help alleviate the suffering of civilians in Gaza once a ceasefire is reached.
As for Israel and the current far-right government, which relentlessly provokes Egypt verbally and politically by promoting the crime of displacing the Palestinian people from Gaza and expanding settlements in the West Bank, Cairo’s priorities are to prevent any infringement on national sovereignty or threat to our national security by thwarting the criminal displacement plans from the Gaza Strip, to confront the threat of liquidating the Palestinian cause through a combination of displacement and settlement, and to preserve the integrity of the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty with all its security guarantees and annexes.
Egypt has the internal strength and regional and international support to stand up to Israeli provocations and prevent the liquidation of the Palestinian cause, while continuing its commitment to peace diplomacy, negotiation, and mediation.
The far-right government in Tel Aviv must realise that the displacement of the population of Gaza directly threatens two pillars of Egyptian national security: preventing all forms of the collective presence of Palestinian refugees on Egyptian territory and preventing the liquidation of the Palestinian cause by expelling the Palestinian people from their land.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government must also realise that the criminal displacement plans directly threaten the peace between Egypt and Israel, which has existed since 1979 and is based on mutual respect for national sovereignty and non-aggression.
It is no secret that Egypt views the displacement plans from Gaza and the annexation and settlement plans in the West Bank as potentially destabilising the Middle East, the European neighbourhood, and the entire Mediterranean Basin, which can no longer tolerate new waves of displacement, exodus, and asylum.
The displacement plans in Gaza and the annexation plans in the West Bank will only lead to more violence, insecurity, and humanitarian woes, the political, societal, and developmental costs of which we will all pay in the Middle East, Europe, and the rest of the world.
Regionally, as evidenced by the resolution on collective security arrangements adopted in a joint Egyptian-Saudi initiative by the Council of the Arab League at its meeting a few days ago, Cairo is actively working to forge consensus around comprehensive principles to end wars, military confrontations, and instability in the Middle East.
These principles are based on respect for the sovereignty and national borders of states, non-interference in the internal affairs of others, the peaceful resolution of disputes and conflicts (both between and within states), and the empowerment of the Palestinian people to exercise their right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent state, as this is the only way to extricate our region from the current state of insecurity.
The Egyptian proposal regarding the necessity of freeing the Middle East of weapons of mass destruction (which Israel alone possesses in the region) and curbing arms races, which exact a heavy developmental price that we can do without, also aligns with the United States.
While it is important for Cairo to record its categorical rejection of any approach by Washington to the criminal plans of the extreme right in Tel Aviv, the friendly and cooperative relations between Egypt and the US are not on the verge of crisis or collapse. Cairo must reject Washington’s policies that are biased towards the Israeli far right, and it can respond effectively to the Trump administration’s reluctance to pressure the government of Netanyahu.
Cairo’s diplomatic and political capabilities provide it with ample space for dialogue with Washington regarding ceasefire efforts, reconstruction plans, and the gradual achievement of a long-term truce between Israel and Palestine that would enable a return to permanent peace negotiations. Without submitting to American dictates, which Egypt does not accept, or remaining silent regarding policies and practices biased towards Israel that undermine Egyptian and Arab security, Cairo can maintain its good relations with Washington and continually seek opportunities to utilise them positively.
The issue here is not simply the military or economic aid Egypt receives from the US, which comes in exchange for significant strategic advantages for the superpower. Rather, it is related to the influential American role in regional security issues in the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and numerous international economic and political issues.
Egypt has no strategic interest in abandoning its friendly and cooperative relations with the United States or halting its ongoing dialogue with it.
*The writer is a political scientist and former MP. He is currently director of the Middle East Programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 11 September, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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