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Saudi Arabia Spearheads Arab Scramble for Alternative to Trump’s Gaza Plan

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends the 45th Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit in Kuwait city, Kuwait, Dec. 1, 2024. Photo: Bandar Algaloud/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court/Handout via REUTERS
Saudi Arabia is spearheading urgent Arab efforts to develop a plan for Gaza’s future as a counter to US President Donald Trump’s ambition for a Middle East Riviera cleared of its Palestinian inhabitants, 10 sources said.
Draft ideas will be discussed at a meeting in Riyadh this month of countries including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates. Proposals may involve a Gulf-led reconstruction fund and a deal to sideline Hamas, five of the people said.
Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies were aghast at Trump’s plan to “clean out” Palestinians from Gaza and resettle most of them in Jordan and Egypt, an idea immediately rejected by Cairo and Amman and seen in most of the region as deeply destabilizing.
The dismay in Saudi Arabia was aggravated, sources said, because the plan would nix the kingdom’s demand for a clear path to Palestinian statehood as a condition to normalize ties with Israel — something that would also pave the way for an ambitious military pact between Riyadh and Washington, shoring up the kingdom’s defenses against Iran.
Reuters spoke to 15 sources in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and elsewhere to build a picture of the hurried efforts by Arab states to pull together existing proposals into a new plan they can sell to the US president— even potentially calling it a “Trump plan” to win his approval.
All the sources declined to be identified because the issue involves international or domestic sensitivities and they were not authorized to speak in public.
One Arab government source said at least four proposals had already been drafted for Gaza’s future, but an Egyptian proposal was now emerging as central to the Arab push for an alternative to Trump’s idea.
THE EGYPTIAN PROPOSAL
The latest Egyptian proposal involves forming a national Palestinian committee to govern Gaza without Hamas involvement, international participation in reconstruction without displacing Palestinians abroad, and movement towards a two-state solution, three Egyptian security sources said.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Palestinian representatives will review and discuss the plan in Riyadh before it is presented at a scheduled Arab summit on February 27, the Arab government source said.
The role of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, widely known as MbS, is shaping up to be key.
“We are telling the Americans we have a plan that works. Our meeting with MbS is going to be critical. He is taking the lead,” said a Jordanian official.
The crown prince had a warm relationship with the first Trump administration and is increasingly central to Arab ties with the United States during the new Trump era.
Long a major regional partner for the United States, the crown prince is expanding Saudi Arabia’s relationship through business and global power politics.
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is holding a conference in Miami this month that Reuters revealed Trump is expected to attend. Riyadh is also expected to host his coming talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to end the Ukraine war.
The White House did not respond to several requests for comment on this story.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking on Thursday, referred to the coming Arab meeting, saying: “Right now the only plan— they don’t like it— but the only plan is the Trump plan. So, if they’ve got a better plan, now’s the time to present it.”
Spokespeople for Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, and Israel did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
BUFFER ZONE
Clear plans for Gaza’s post-war future have already proven hard to develop as they require positions on contentious debates regarding the territory’s internal governance, security management, funding, and reconstruction.
Israel has already rejected any role for Hamas or the Palestinian Authority in governing Gaza, or ensuring security there. Arab countries and the United States have also said they do not want to put troops on the ground to do that.
Gulf states, which have historically paid for reconstruction in Gaza, have said they do not want to do so this time without guarantees that Israel will not again destroy what they build.
Jordan’s King Abdullah emphasized to Trump on Monday at their meeting in the White House that he was working with Saudi Arabia and Egypt on a Gaza plan that would work, a Jordanian official said.
Abdullah said in televised comments after the meeting that the countries would review an Egyptian plan and “we will be in Saudi Arabia to discuss how we can work with the president and the United States.”
Reuters could not immediately reach Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi for comment. After Abdullah’s meeting with Trump, Safadi said: “We are now working on crystallizing the Arab plan.”
Initial proposals shared by the three Egyptian security sources relating to reconstruction and financing appear advanced.
A buffer zone and physical barrier would be erected to stop tunnels being built across Gaza’s border with Egypt. As soon as rubble is removed, 20 areas would be established as temporary living zones. Around 50 Egyptian and other foreign companies would be brought in to carry out the work.
Financing would involve international and Gulf money, said a regional source with knowledge of the matter. A potential fund could be named the Trump Fund for Reconstruction, the Arab government official said.
However, the most difficult issues around Gaza’s governance and internal security remain to be decided, the official said.
Forcing Hamas out of any role in Gaza would be critical, said the Arab official and the three Egyptian sources.
Hamas has previously said it is willing to cede government in Gaza to a national committee, but it would want a role in choosing its members and would not accept the deployment of any ground forces without its consent.
The three Egyptian sources said that while nothing in the plan was very new, they believed it was good enough to change Trump’s mind and that it could be imposed on Hamas and the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas.
‘NOT PLEASED’
Saudi annoyance over Gaza had already been building before Trump’s announcement.
The kingdom had repeatedly said normalization with Israel was conditional on a path to creating a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.
That stance hardened as Saudi public anger grew at the destruction in Gaza. In November, the crown prince publicly accused Israel of genocide during an Islamic summit and doubled down on the need for a two-state solution.
Frustration was running high in the kingdom over the ongoing war, two regional intelligence sources said.
Washington appeared ready to push past Riyadh’s demand for two states. The day before his Gaza announcement, Trump was asked whether a normalization deal could go ahead without a two-state solution. He said: “Saudi Arabia is going to be very helpful.”
Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff had held meetings in Riyadh in late January. Two senior diplomats said Witkoff laid out a three-month timeline for the normalisation process.
But Saudi frustration quickly turned into surprise and then anger when Trump announced his Gaza idea. “He is not pleased,” a source close to the Saudi royal court said of Prince Mohammed’s reaction.
The level of anger was quickly evident in state media broadcasts — which analysts say are often a measure of official Saudi viewpoints— with television news reports personally excoriating Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“They are outraged,” said Aziz Alghashian, a Saudi analyst familiar with official thinking, describing the mood among senior Saudi officials. “This is outrageous. More than frustration, this is on another level.”
Many experts say Trump may be using an old bargaining ploy from his diplomatic playbook, setting out an extreme position as an opening gambit for negotiations. During his first term, he often issued what were widely seen as over-the-top foreign policy pronouncements, many of which never came to fruition.
Still, it has complicated the normalization talks.
Former Saudi intelligence head Prince Turki al-Faisal, who holds no current role in the government, said in a CNN interview last week that if Trump visited Riyadh, “I’m sure he will get an earful from the leadership here.”
Asked if he could see any prospect of normalization talks advancing with Israel, he said: “Not at all.”
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials

FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say

Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
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