September 3, 2025

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Arab Leaders Work to Shape the Gaza “Day After”

Murtadha Al-Sudani/Pool Photo via AP

As Egypt and Qatar try to forge a ceasefire that would cut short Israel’s offensive against Gaza City, leaders in Cairo and other major Arab capitals are also moving forward with efforts to assemble a viable “day after” plan to govern and secure the Gaza Strip in a postwar period. U.S. and regional leaders assess that mounting Israel Defense Forces (IDF) casualties and an expanding global outcry over the severe humanitarian conditions in Gaza will eventually compel Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept day after proposals he has rejected. In early August, while expressing intent to proceed with a plan to “conquer” remaining Hamas strongholds in Gaza, Netanyahu said Israel wanted to hand over control of Gaza to unnamed “Arab forces” after Hamas’ defeat. Still, he has yet to present a comprehensive Israeli day after plan. Arab leaders assert their proposals largely meet the U.S. and Israel’s demands that Hamas rule and influence in Gaza be eliminated entirely.

The core tenet of the Arab-led day after plan envisions the restoration of Palestinian Authority (PA) rule over postwar Gaza. Since the Gaza war began, there has been consensus among U.S. and regional officials that postwar governance and security will require a return of the PA and its constituent groups to Gaza, particularly the core Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which is the internationally recognized representative of the Palestinian people. The PLO still abides by the 1993 Israel-PLO peace agreement, but its leadership has been challenged for decades by Hamas, which refuses to forswear violence against Israel — as demonstrated clearly by the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel — and rejects a “two-state solution.” U.S. and regional leaders have assessed that restoring PA rule in Gaza is required to draw in the other forces, particularly from neighboring countries, needed to help disarm Hamas, secure Gaza, and attract reconstruction funds from regional and global donor states.

To demonstrate the viability of a PA-centric day after plan to the U.S. and Israel, Egypt has begun training hundreds of Palestinians to join a force of up to 10,000 to provide security for the Gaza Strip, according to the Wall Street Journal. According to Egyptian officials, potential recruits have already started training at Egyptian military academies. Most of the Palestinians in the force are expected to come from the Palestinian Authority’s security services, as well as from the largely disbanded Gaza police force. Mahmoud al-Habbash, a senior advisor to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, confirmed the training plan and stated, “Without the PA, it’s either Hamas or chaos.” Habbash added that the international community is expected to fund the security force development, with an initial force of 5,000 sent to Egypt for six months of training starting on the first day of a ceasefire. Some read Egypt’s decision to begin training Palestinian forces as an effort to present U.S. and Israeli officials with a fait accompli – essentially boxing both the U.S. and Israel into accepting the Arab-led day after strategy.

Egypt’s decision to begin the security force training program was stimulated by growing regional and global pressure on both Israel and Hamas to end the war. On August 26, U.S. Special Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff said: “We believe we can reach a settlement, one way or another, certainly before the end of the year.” In late July, the 22-country League of Arab States joined twelve other nations, mostly European powers, in a declaration condemning the October 7 Hamas attack and calling on Hamas to demilitarize, give up its rule in Gaza, and free the hostages. The resolution was adopted at a conference organized by France and Saudi Arabia in support of an independent Palestinian state. In late August, Egypt and Qatar presented Hamas with a proposal to create an international force primarily made up of Arab security personnel, including the PA forces Egypt has begun training, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Despite the consensus among global diplomats that the Arab-led day after plan is the only viable solution, there is no certainty that the combatant parties, or all outside participants, will accept it. The plan carries political and ideological risks for Netanyahu as well as Hamas leaders. Hamas has, to date, rejected the plan because it requires the group to relinquish all military and political control of Gaza. Doing so would effectively end Hamas’ ambition to emerge as the dominant force not only in Gaza but within the Palestinian national movement more broadly. An agreement to disarm would affirm that the group’s October 7 attack was a strategic blunder that led to the dissolution of Hamas as a significant movement. Hamas has instead sought to steer regional mediators toward renewed talks on a previous U.S.-Israeli proposal calling for a 60-day ceasefire, the release of 10 hostages, and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners—an offer Israel has yet to accept.

Some Arab leaders who nominally support the plan have reservations about the initiative’s dependence on the PA. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), for example, wants to see reforms in the PA before supporting its inclusion in Gaza’s postwar governance. Corroborating that view, a former advisor to Palestinian negotiators, Khaled Elgindy, told journalists that Egypt’s security force training initiative represents “an attempt by Arab states to rehabilitate the Palestinian Authority, which is suffering a crisis of legitimacy.” UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ) reportedly expressed his country’s view on the need for new PA leadership during his visit to Egypt last week, during which he met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in New Alamein City.

Although Hamas’ objections and regional concerns about the PA could be overcome, opposition from Netanyahu and his allies to a PA-centered day after plan might constitute an insurmountable hurdle. Netanyahu has consistently opposed returning the PA to control of Gaza, citing the authority’s “support for terror.” The opposition comes despite Israel’s cooperation with the PA in the West Bank. Michael Milshtein, a former senior Israeli intelligence officer, has indicated Netanyahu’s rejection of PA control has political motivations, arguing: “If Netanyahu says yes to something like this, it means the end of the war, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and, most importantly, the collapse of the government…Netanyahu isn’t willing to go there.” Other experts maintain that Netanyahu and his allies perceive that returning the PA to rule in Gaza will re-establish unified Palestinian governance and thereby create a “Palestinian state in waiting.” Although some past Israeli governments have supported negotiations toward a Palestinian state, Netanyahu and his supporters firmly oppose Palestinian statehood. Broader Israeli support for a two-state solution has, by all accounts, diminished as a result of the October 7 Hamas attack. But, apparently acknowledging that permanent stability in Gaza will require establishing Palestinian leadership there, the Israeli cabinet has advocated a middle ground in which the Gaza administration “is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.”

Regional and global leaders will look to Washington to overcome Netanyahu’s objections to the Arab-led day after plan. Trump officials join Arab leaders in acknowledging the need for a leading PA role in Gaza, but Trump and his team also support those in the region advocating fundamental PA reform as a prerequisite for its return to power in Gaza.  Last Wednesday, Trump presided over a White House policy meeting on day after plans for Gaza. According to a White House official, critics of the PA and President Mahmoud Abbas were in the meeting, including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Trump Middle East envoy Jared Kushner (Trump’s son-in-law). Trump reportedly also called top Netanyahu adviser Ron Dermer during the meeting in progress.

The meeting reportedly discussed earlier Trump concepts — widely dismissed as unrealistic — for displacing the Gaza population and reconstructing the Gaza Strip into a global tourism hub. Two days after the meeting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that top PA officials, including Abbas, would be denied visas to attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meetings in New York later in September. Rubio asserted the ban was based on the PLO and PA’s failure to repudiate terrorism, its incitement of violence, and its pursuit of an "international lawfare campaigns" through the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice. The Trump team’s decision appeared intended to message the 89-year-old Abbas, who was elected in 2005 to a four-year term as PA leader but has repeatedly avoided holding new elections, that it is time for him to yield power to younger leaders who might be viable partners in a PA-centered solution for Gaza.