RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Feb 21 (AFP): Arab leaders were gathering in Saudi Arabia on Friday to hammer out a recovery plan for Gaza aimed at countering President Donald Trump's proposal for US control of the territory and the expulsion of its people.
Trump's plan has united Arab states in opposition, but disagreements remain over who should govern the war-ravaged Palestinian territory and how to fund its reconstruction.
Umer Karim, an expert on Saudi foreign policy, called the summit the "most consequential" in decades for the wider Arab world and the Palestinian issue.
Trump triggered global outrage when he proposed the United States "take over the Gaza Strip" and relocate its 2.4 million people to neighbouring Egypt and Jordan.
A source close to the Saudi government told AFP Arab leaders would discuss "a reconstruction plan to counter Trump's plan for Gaza".
The Gaza Strip is largely in ruins after more than a year of war between Israel and Hamas, with the United Nations recently estimating that rebuilding would cost more than $53 billion.
Meeting with Trump in Washington on February 11, Jordan's King Abdullah II said Egypt would present a plan for a way forward.
The Saudi source said the talks would discuss "a version of the Egyptian plan".
The official Saudi Press Agency, citing an official, confirmed on Thursday that Egypt and Jordan were participating in the Riyadh summit along with the six country members of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
It also said decisions issued by the "unofficial fraternal meeting" would appear on the agenda of an emergency Arab League summit to be held in Egypt on 4 March.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi arrived in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, his office said.
Previously, a Saudi source told AFP the Palestinian Authority would also take part in the talks.
Rebuilding Gaza will be a key issue, after Trump cited reconstruction as justification for relocating its population.
Cairo has yet to announce its initiative, but former Egyptian diplomat Mohamed Hegazy outlined a plan "in three technical phases over a period of three to five years".
The first phase, lasting six months, would focus on "early recovery" and the removal of debris, he said.
The second would require an international conference to provide details of reconstruction and focus on rebuilding utility infrastructure.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday ordered an "intensive operation against centers of terrorism" in the occupied West Bank, his office said, after three buses exploded in central Israel without causing any reported injuries.
Three devices detonated on buses in the city of Bat Yam on Thursday evening and two others were being defused, according to police, with Israel's defence minister accusing "Palestinian terrorist" groups of being behind the blasts.
Netanyahu's office said on social media early Friday that he had completed a security assessment with top officials, ordering fresh counterterrorism operations as well as stepped up security in Israeli cities.
"The Prime Minister has ordered the IDF (military) to carry out an intensive operation against centers of terrorism in Judea and Samaria," Netanyahu's office said on X, using the biblical term for the West Bank.
"The Prime Minister also ordered the Israel Police and the ISA (internal security agency) to increase preventative activity against additional attacks in Israeli cities," he added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that Hamas had handed over the body of a "Gazan woman" the day before and not that of hostage Shiri Bibas as agreed in the truce deal.
"In an unimaginably cynical manner, they did not return Shiri to her small children, the little angels, and instead placed the body of a Gazan woman in a coffin," Netanyahu said in a video statement.
