The emergency Arab summit on 4 March 2025 publicly rejected the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza promoted by United States’ President Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu, and announced the adoption of a reconstruction plan introduced by Egypt for the Gaza Strip. The Arab summit’s concluding statement called for an end to Israel’s ‘aggression’ in the West Bank and its blockage of aid into Gaza. The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) underscores that this position must be translated into action with sustained pressure to immediately end Israeli attacks and guarantee the unimpeded entry of humanitarian aid. Beyond urgent relief, comprehensive efforts must be undertaken to achieve a lasting solution—one that ends Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, dismantles its apartheid system that upholds Palestinian oppression, and guarantees Palestinians’ right to self-determination and full democratic political participation.
This plan—which has been rejected by the United States and Israel—proposes temporary housing amid reconstruction and a temporary administrative committee to manage Gazan affairs, to be composed of ‘independent technocrats working under the umbrella of the Palestinian government’. The plan also calls for an international peacekeeping mission and a buffer zone, to be implemented in parallel to efforts for a two-state solution.
‘Reconstructing Gaza under the current proposal would be like applying a band-aid to a deeper wound. The Palestinian people require full self-determination—actual sovereignty, not managed survival. That means dismantling Israel’s occupation and ensuring Palestinians govern their land, free from the imposed control of any party and with full political participation in shaping their future,’ says Amna Guellali, Research Director at CIHRS.
Egypt’s proposal runs counter to the United States’ reconstruction proposal, which sought to forcibly displace Palestinians to other countries, but fails to give precedence to Palestinian voices and patronizes them as aid beneficiaries rather than decision makers shaping their own future. The Arab Summit’s concluding statement on 4 March vaguely mentioned the State of Palestine’s need to make an ‘effort’ to hold elections ‘when circumstances permit’. Palestinians have been denied their right to political participation for far too long, with the last elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council held in 2006 and the last presidential elections in 2005.
This proposal comes amid relentless Israeli attacks and forced displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank as Israel’s renewed blockade on aid to Gaza, since 2 March, has further exacerbated the humanitarian catastrophe in the occupied enclave, in brazen violation of the ceasefire agreement, its obligations under international humanitarian law and human rights law, and the repeated orders of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The 42-day long first phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas expired before the negotiation of the proposed second phase, which would have brought the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and a declaration of a permanent ceasefire. Since October 2023 and by March 2025, more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed and identified in Gaza according to official sources, and the number is estimated to be at least three times that, while over 90 percent of Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced.
As the international discussion focused on Gaza, Israel launched a military operation in the West Bank on 21 January, just two days after the ceasefire agreement in Gaza went into effect. The operation, which is now the longest operation in the West Bank in two decades, has included a ground invasion and airstrikes, heightened security measures and mass detentions of Palestinians across the West Bank. By 21 February, Israel had killed at least 50 Palestinians while displacing over 40,000 people from refugee camps, further inflaming an already dire humanitarian and political crisis.
The increasingly brutal military operation underway is only the latest of Israel’s unlawful incursions into the West Bank. Between October 2023 and 21 February 2025, at least 887 Palestinians were killed as Israel continued to expand its illegal settlements with over 30,000 housing units added in 2023–a 180 percent increase over a five-year period. By September 2023, approximately 700,000 settlers illegally resided in the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem.
The international community must ensure an immediate end to Israel’s unlawful occupation and apartheid system, and hold Israel accountable for its violations, in accordance with the ICJ advisory opinion of July 2024 calling on Israel to immediately end its illegal occupation of the OPT. States must affirm their international legal obligation to not recognize as legal the situation arising from Israel’s occupation, nor to render aid in maintaining it.
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