Egyptian Assistant Foreign Minister Mohamed Hegazy on Wednesday unveiled his country’s proposal for rebuilding Gaza – and, implicitly, Egypt’s counter to President Donald Trump’s plan to take over the territory and rebuild it as “the Riviera of the Middle East.”

“Egypt aims to implement an early recovery plan to meet the humanitarian needs of the Strip, including food, water, sanitation, and healthcare for the population,” said Hegazy, who is also Egypt’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva.

“The plan also seeks to revitalize the local economy, helping Gaza recover from this devastating aggression and restore minimum livable conditions before transitioning to a full reconstruction phase,” he said, unhelpfully maintaining the fiction that Israel’s response to the horrifying Hamas atrocities of October 7, 2023, was an act of “aggression.”

The rather hazy “plan” rolled out by Hegazy was essentially a pledge to rebuild Gaza without relocating the Palestinians – or threatening the Hamas terrorist organization’s grip on power. President Trump, on the other hand, has proposed moving the Palestinians somewhere else during reconstruction and he is somewhat elusive on when they would be allowed to return.

Relocating the Palestinians is a major sticking point with Egypt and Jordan, the Arab nations that border Gaza. From an ideological standpoint, the Egyptians and Jordanians insist that the Palestinians have a sacred right to every parcel of land they occupy that is not located in Egypt or Jordan. From a practical standpoint, the last thing either of them wants is more Palestinians.

President Trump met with Jordanian King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday and the Jordanian king was surprisingly diffident about the idea of relocating the Palestinians, given how fiercely his government and media have previously denounced the idea. Abdullah effectively punted the issue to Cairo by saying he would make no firm comments on Trump’s plan until he hears what the Egyptians have to say.

Reports this week indicated that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi would refuse to meet with Trump if the American president insisted on pressing his Gaza takeover plan. Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said during a trip to Washington this week that Egypt would respond with its own plan to “ensure Palestinians remain on their land.”

Assistant Foreign Minister Hegazy duly unveiled that plan in his interview with Ahram Online on Wednesday, demanding international support for Egypt’s alternative to the Trump plan.

“This is crucial to saving the people of Gaza from catastrophe and paving the way for the success of the early recovery phase, followed by reconstruction. The international community mustn’t fail them again on a humanitarian level, as it may have failed them politically,” Hegazy said.