Egypt is developing a plan to rebuild Gaza without forcing Palestinians out of the strip in a counter to President Donald Trump’s proposal to depopulate the territory so the US can take it over.

Egypt’s state-run Al-Ahram newspaper said the proposal calls for establishing “secure areas” within Gaza where Palestinians can live initially while Egyptian and international construction firms remove and rehabilitate the strip’s infrastructure.

Egyptian officials have been discussing the plan with European diplomats as well as with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, according to two Egyptian officials and Arab and Western diplomats.

They are also discussing ways to fund the reconstruction, including an international conference on Gaza reconstruction, said one of the Egyptian officials and an Arab diplomat, the Associated Press reported. 

The officials and diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because the proposal is still being negotiated.

Meanwhile, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty once again rejected any displacement of Palestinians from their lands.

In a speech at the fourth meeting of the global alliance to implement the so-called two-state solution, Abdelatty said that the “serious humanitarian crisis in Gaza requires an early recovery process” and that the reconstruction must take place “within a clear and specific timeline”.

He said, “Egypt is working on developing a comprehensive, multi-stage vision for early recovery and reconstruction in Gaza”, and called for global backing for UNRWA, which has been banned by Israel. The minister described the agency as “indispensable and irreplaceable”.

The Egyptian proposal comes after an international uproar over Trump’s call for the removal of Gaza’s population of some 2 million Palestinians. Trump said the United States would take over the Gaza Strip and rebuild it into a “Riviera of the Middle East,” though Palestinians would not be allowed back.