Arab leaders meet in Riyadh to hash out Gaza plan

Arab leaders met in Riyadh Friday to craft a plan for Gaza's post-war reconstruction to counter Donald Trump's proposal for the US to take over the territory without its Palestinian inhabitants.

Trump's plan has united Arab states in opposition to it.

A source close to the Saudi government confirmed the meeting had finished but the hosts did not immediately publish a final statement.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's office said he had left the Saudi capital after the meeting with the leaders of Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

A Saudi source had earlier told AFP that the Palestinian Authority was also expected to take part in the talks.

Trump triggered global outrage when he proposed the US "take over" the Gaza Strip and relocate its more than 2mn residents to Egypt and Jordan.

The Gaza Strip is largely in ruins after more than 15 months of Israeli war on the enclave, with the UN recently estimating that reconstruction will cost more than $53bn.

During a meeting with Trump in Washington on Feb 11, Jordan's King Abdullah II said Egypt would present a plan for a way forward.

The Saudi source said the delegates would discuss "a version of the Egyptian plan".

The official Saudi Press Agency said the decisions taken at the meeting would be put on the agenda of an emergency Arab League summit to be held in Egypt on March 4.

Arab leaders see an alternative plan for Gaza's reconstruction as essential after Trump pointed to the scale of the task as a justification for relocating its Palestinian inhabitants.

Cairo has yet to release the details of its proposal, but former Egyptian diplomat Mohamed Hegazy outlined a plan "in three technical phases over a period of three to five years".

The first phase, lasting six months, would focus on "early recovery" and the removal of debris, he said.

The second would require an international conference to set out detailed plans for reconstruction and restoring infrastructure.

The final phase would see the provision of housing and services and the establishment of a "political track to implement the two-state solution", an independent Palestine alongside Israel.