CAIRO/ISTANBUL
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty discussed on Friday with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa preparations for an international conference for Gaza reconstruction, scheduled for next month.
During a phone call, the two officials discussed the ongoing preparations for the conference on early recovery, reconstruction, and development in Gaza, which is scheduled to be held in Cairo in the second half of November, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
They also reviewed “details related to the objectives and expected outcomes of the conference, particularly concerning funding and financial pledges, as well as the assessment and updating of Gaza’s destruction estimates.”
The Egyptian minister expressed his hope for “active participation from all international stakeholders in the conference.”
Egypt is organizing the conference as part of an Arab-Islamic plan approved last March to rebuild the enclave after Israel’s deadly war.
The UN estimates the cost of rebuilding Gaza at around $70 billion, following two years of Israeli bombardment, which also killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians and wounded over 170,100, most of them women and children.
The Palestinian premier, for his part, praised Egypt’s efforts to rebuild Gaza and its hosting of the conference,
He also expressed appreciation for Egypt’s role in achieving a ceasefire in Gaza and defending the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, according to the Egyptian statement.
The Gaza ceasefire deal was reached between Israel and Hamas last week, based on a plan presented by US President Donald Trump. Phase one included the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. The plan also envisages the rebuilding of Gaza and the establishment of a new governing mechanism without Hamas.
Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, and rendered it largely uninhabitable.