Uncertainty Surrounds Gaza Reconstruction Amid Renewed Israeli Strikes

Palestinian children near the tents of the displaced in Khan Younis. (Reuters)
Palestinian children near the tents of the displaced in Khan Younis. (Reuters)
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Uncertainty Surrounds Gaza Reconstruction Amid Renewed Israeli Strikes

Palestinian children near the tents of the displaced in Khan Younis. (Reuters)
Palestinian children near the tents of the displaced in Khan Younis. (Reuters)

Israel’s renewed military strikes on Gaza have cast doubt on efforts to secure international support for the Arab-Islamic reconstruction plan.

Observers and experts argued that rebuilding Gaza is contingent on advancing to the second phase of the ceasefire agreement. They highlighted the roles of Egypt and Qatar in mediation, but acknowledge that Israeli and US support for reconstruction remains uncertain.

Israel launched fresh airstrikes across Gaza on Tuesday, vowing to intensify military action following stalled negotiations with Hamas over hostage releases.

Egypt strongly condemned the attacks, warning they undermine peace efforts. In a joint call, the Egyptian president and the Emir of Kuwait urged the international community to push for an immediate ceasefire, the implementation of a two-state solution, and the establishment of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders.

Despite the violence, diplomatic efforts to promote the reconstruction plan continued. Dr. Abdel Moneim Said, a member of Egypt’s Shura Council, told Asharq Al-Awsat that negotiations and mediation efforts remain active. He described the plan as a vital step toward Gaza’s recovery and broader regional stability.

Ambassador Mohamed Hegazy of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs echoed this sentiment, emphasizing that while Israel has backed away from the ceasefire agreement, Egypt and Arab nations will continue pushing for peace and rebuilding efforts. Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, he hoped that international pressure could prevent further escalation.

Before Israel’s latest strikes, Egypt had intensified its efforts to rally support for the reconstruction plan. Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty engaged in discussions with officials from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, Qatar, Palestine, Türkiye, Nigeria, and Indonesia, focusing on implementing the outcomes of the Cairo emergency summit.

Additionally, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry hosted on Monday a meeting with over 100 ambassadors and international organization representatives to discuss rehabilitating Gaza’s healthcare system. Abdelatty stressed that a lasting ceasefire is essential for successful reconstruction. He also announced plans for a reconstruction conference in Cairo to secure funding.

Dr. Ayman Al-Raqab, a Palestinian political scientist at Al-Quds University, identified Israel as the primary obstacle to rebuilding Gaza.

Only the US has the leverage to persuade Israel to agree to a ceasefire, yet Washington has given Tel Aviv the green light to continue its military campaign, he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“Washington has not taken any concrete steps to support the reconstruction plan,” Al-Raqab said, adding that progress hinges on advancing to the second phase of the ceasefire—something that has yet to be achieved.

Former Egyptian deputy Foreign Minister Ambassador Rakha Ahmed Hassan argued that Israel has deliberately obstructed reconstruction efforts, evidenced by its resistance to negotiations on the second phase of the truce. He told Asharq Al-Awsat that renewed strikes could further Israel’s alleged goal of displacing Palestinians, a move Egypt and Arab states firmly oppose.

The US position on Gaza’s reconstruction has been inconsistent. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce recently stated that the proposed agreement “does not meet expectations,” while former US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff praised Egypt’s efforts but refrained from endorsing the plan. He acknowledged it as a “good-faith step”, but called for further discussions.

The Arab-Islamic reconstruction plan proposes a six-month transitional governance committee composed of independent technocrats under the Palestinian Authority’s oversight. The plan includes temporary housing for displaced Gazans at seven designated sites, capable of sheltering over 1.5 million people. The total cost is estimated at $53 billion, with an expected five-year timeline for completion.



What to Know about the Tensions between Iran and the US before Their Third Round of Talks

The flags of US and Iran are displayed in Muscat, Oman, 25 April 2025. Iran and US will hold third round of nuclear talks on 26 April 2025, in Muscat. (EPA)
The flags of US and Iran are displayed in Muscat, Oman, 25 April 2025. Iran and US will hold third round of nuclear talks on 26 April 2025, in Muscat. (EPA)
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What to Know about the Tensions between Iran and the US before Their Third Round of Talks

The flags of US and Iran are displayed in Muscat, Oman, 25 April 2025. Iran and US will hold third round of nuclear talks on 26 April 2025, in Muscat. (EPA)
The flags of US and Iran are displayed in Muscat, Oman, 25 April 2025. Iran and US will hold third round of nuclear talks on 26 April 2025, in Muscat. (EPA)

Iran and the United States will hold talks Saturday in Oman, their third round of negotiations over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.

The talks follow a first round held in Muscat, Oman, where the two sides spoke face to face. They then met again in Rome last weekend before this scheduled meeting again in Muscat.

Trump has imposed new sanctions on Iran as part of his “maximum pressure” campaign targeting the country. He has repeatedly suggested military action against Iran remained a possibility, while emphasizing he still believed a new deal could be reached by writing a letter to Iran’s 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to jumpstart these talks.

Khamenei has warned Iran would respond to any attack with an attack of its own.

Here’s what to know about the letter, Iran’s nuclear program and the tensions that have stalked relations between Tehran and Washington since the 1979 revolution.

Why did Trump write the letter? Trump dispatched the letter to Khamenei on March 5, then gave a television interview the next day in which he acknowledged sending it. He said: “I’ve written them a letter saying, ‘I hope you’re going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing.’”

Since returning to the White House, the president has been pushing for talks while ratcheting up sanctions and suggesting a military strike by Israel or the US could target Iranian nuclear sites.

A previous letter from Trump during his first term drew an angry retort from the supreme leader.

But Trump’s letters to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his first term led to face-to-face meetings, though no deals to limit Pyongyang’s atomic bombs and a missile program capable of reaching the continental US.

How did the first round go? Oman, a sultanate on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, hosted the first round of talks between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The two men met face to face after indirect talks and immediately agreed to this second round in Rome.

Witkoff later made a television appearance in which he suggested 3.67% enrichment for Iran could be something the countries could agree on. But that’s exactly the terms set by the 2015 nuclear deal struck under US President Barack Obama, from which Trump unilaterally withdrew America.

Witkoff hours later issued a statement underlining something: “A deal with Iran will only be completed if it is a Trump deal.” Araghchi and Iranian officials have latched onto Witkoff’s comments in recent days as a sign that America was sending it mixed signals about the negotiations.

Yet the Rome talks ended up with the two sides agreeing to starting expert-level talks this Saturday. Analysts described that as a positive sign, though much likely remains to be agreed before reaching a tentative deal.

Why does Iran’s nuclear program worry the West? Iran has insisted for decades that its nuclear program is peaceful. However, its officials increasingly threaten to pursue a nuclear weapon. Iran now enriches uranium to near weapons-grade levels of 60%, the only country in the world without a nuclear weapons program to do so.

Under the original 2015 nuclear deal, Iran was allowed to enrich uranium up to 3.67% purity and to maintain a uranium stockpile of 300 kilograms (661 pounds). The last report by the International Atomic Energy Agency on Iran’s program put its stockpile at 8,294.4 kilograms (18,286 pounds) as it enriches a fraction of it to 60% purity.

US intelligence agencies assess that Iran has yet to begin a weapons program, but has “undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so.”

Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, has warned in a televised interview that his country has the capability to build nuclear weapons, but it is not pursuing it and has no problem with the International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspections. However, he said if the US or Israel were to attack Iran over the issue, the country would have no choice but to move toward nuclear weapon development.

“If you make a mistake regarding Iran’s nuclear issue, you will force Iran to take that path, because it must defend itself,” he said.

Why are relations so bad between Iran and the US? Iran was once one of the US’s top allies in the Middle East under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who purchased American military weapons and allowed CIA technicians to run secret listening posts monitoring the neighboring Soviet Union. The CIA had fomented a 1953 coup that cemented the shah’s rule.

But in January 1979, the shah, fatally ill with cancer, fled Iran as mass demonstrations swelled against his rule. The revolution followed, led by Khomeini, and created Iran’s theocratic government.

Later that year, university students overran the US Embassy in Tehran, seeking the shah’s extradition and sparking the 444-day hostage crisis that saw diplomatic relations between Iran and the US severed. The Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s saw the US back Saddam Hussein. The “Tanker War” during that conflict saw the US launch a one-day assault that crippled Iran at sea, while the US later shot down an Iranian commercial airliner that the American military said it mistook for a warplane.

Iran and the US have see-sawed between enmity and grudging diplomacy in the years since, with relations peaking when Tehran made the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. But Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord in 2018, sparking tensions in the Middle East that persist today.