This came during a meeting between Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdel Aty and US Senators Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley in Cairo on Sunday, according to a statement from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry on Monday.
According to the statement, the Egyptian Foreign Minister listened to "the two senators' impressions of their visit on Saturday to the cities of Arish and Rafah, adjacent to the Gaza border."
Abdel-Ati stressed to the two senators the "rapid deterioration of the catastrophic humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip, which have reached the point of famine."
Since March 2, Israel has closed all crossings into Gaza, preventing any humanitarian aid from entering the territory. This has plunged the Strip into famine, despite the backlog of aid trucks at its borders.
On August 22, the United Nations Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) announced in a report that "famine has occurred in Gaza City (north)" and predicted that it would "spread to Deir al-Balah (central) and Khan Yunis (south) by the end of next September."
The Egyptian minister stressed the "need for concerted regional and international efforts to put an end to the blatant Israeli crimes in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank."
Abdel-Ati reviewed the "Egyptian-Qatari proposal for a ceasefire, the depletion of humanitarian and relief aid, and the release of prisoners," which Hamas has accepted but Israel has yet to respond to. The proposal includes a 60-day truce.
He also stressed "the importance of the international community playing its role in pressuring Israel to respond to the international desire to end the aggression."
About 10 days ago, Hamas announced its acceptance of a proposed agreement submitted by mediators for a prisoner exchange and a 60-day ceasefire. However, Israel has refrained from declaring its position on the agreement. On August 20, Netanyahu announced that he had ordered the acceleration of the plan to occupy Gaza City, amid international warnings that it would lead to the complete destruction of the Strip and increase the suffering and displacement of Palestinians.
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Abdel-Ati reiterated "Egypt's absolute rejection of plans to displace Palestinians from their land," and presented to the American delegation "the elements of the Arab plan for early recovery and reconstruction in Gaza, and the conference that Egypt intends to host for this purpose once a ceasefire is reached."
Egypt is seeking to implement a plan adopted by the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation last March. This plan aims to rebuild Gaza without displacing Palestinians. Implementation will take five years and cost approximately $53 billion.
However, Israel and the United States rejected the plan, adhering to US President Donald Trump's plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza to other countries, such as Egypt and Jordan. Both countries rejected this plan, and other Arab countries and regional and international organizations joined them.
Abdel-Ati's meeting with the two US senators comes after the Washington Post published details of a plan being prepared by the Trump administration for "post-war Gaza." The plan includes US control of the Strip, transforming it into a tourist resort, and "voluntarily" relocating all Palestinians from Gaza to other countries in exchange for payment, or to "restricted and safe" areas within the Strip.
The 38-page draft plan, published by the newspaper on Sunday, is being developed by the Trump administration to address the region's situation following the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza.
Accordingly, the plan is based on "Trump's vision that the United States will assume control of the region and retain authority for at least 10 years," and also calls for transforming Gaza into a tourist resort and a technology and manufacturing center.
With American support, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, including killing, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement, ignoring all international calls and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt it.
This genocide left 63,557 Palestinians dead, 160,660 injured, most of them children and women, more than 9,000 missing, hundreds of thousands displaced, and a famine that claimed the lives of 348 Palestinians, including 127 children.
