Ahmed Asmar
16 May 2025•Update: 16 May 2025
ANKARA
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty stressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday the importance of mobilizing funds to implement the "Arab Reconstruction Plan for Gaza" at both the regional and international levels, amid Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza.
According to an Egyptian Foreign Ministry statement, Abdelatty met with Guterres on the sidelines of the preparatory ministerial meeting for the 34th Arab Summit, which is scheduled to take place in Baghdad on Saturday.
Egypt's top diplomat stressed the importance of resuming the ceasefire and lifting the blockade on Gaza, the statement added.
He also discussed with the UN chief the latest developments in the "International Conference for Early Recovery and Reconstruction of Gaza," which Egypt plans to host once the Israeli war on Gaza ends.
The conference was scheduled to take place in April, but it was postponed due to the collapse of the ceasefire in Gaza after Israel resumed its deadly attacks on the territory on March 18.
Abdelatty emphasized "the importance of mobilizing the necessary funding to implement the Arab Reconstruction Plan at both regional and international levels."
On March 4, an emergency Arab summit in Cairo adopted Egypt's $53 billion reconstruction plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip without displacing Palestinians from their land.
The Arab proposal came after US President Donald Trump's plan to “take over” Gaza and resettle Palestinians to develop it into what he called the "Riviera of the Middle East." His plan was rejected by the Arab world and many other countries, which asserted that it amounts to ethnic cleansing.
The Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 53,000 Palestinians so far, most of them women and children.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
