CAIRO: Egypt rejected on Wednesday an Israeli opposition leader’s proposal that it take over the administration of Gaza, calling the idea “unacceptable” and contrary to longstanding Egyptian and Arab policy.

“Any notions or proposals that circumvent the constants of the Egyptian and Arab stance (on Gaza)… are rejected and unacceptable,” the official MENA news agency quoted foreign ministry spokesman Tamim Khallaf as saying, a day after Israel’s Yair Lapid floated the idea.

In press remarks, Khallaf said any suggestions bypassing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state were “half-solutions” that risk prolonging the conflict rather than solving it. He said the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, were integral parts of the Palestinian territories that must be under “full Palestinian sovereignty and management”.

On Tuesday, Lapid said Egypt should run the Gaza Strip for at least eight years after the war is over, in exchange for massive debt relief. “The solution is Egypt will take responsibility for the management of the Gaza Strip for eight years with an option to extend to 15 years,” he told the hawkish Foundation for Defence of Democracies (FDD) think tank in Washington.

“At the same time, its foreign external debt will be paid off by the international community and regional allies,” Lapid, a former Israeli prime minister, continued. Egypt would lead a “peace force” of the Gulf states and the international community “for the management and rebuilding of Gaza,” he said.

“During that period, the conditions for self-governance in Gaza will be created, and the process of the total demilitarisation of Gaza will be completed,” he said of the region, currently controlled by Palestinian group Hamas.

Egypt has repeatedly rejected proposals for the Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million Palestinian inhabitants to be relocated, calling such mass displacement a “red line”. It led diplomatic efforts this month against a plan floated by President Donald Trump for the Arab states to “take over” and “own” the conflict-stricken territory of Gaza after its inhabitants have been relocated to Egypt or Jordan.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2025