The United States has dismissed a $53 billion, five-year reconstruction plan for Gaza, backed by Arab states.
The US administration is standing by President Donald Trump's proposal to transform the Palestinian enclave into a US-owned "riviera of the Middle East" as a more practical solution.
US National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes says the current proposal does not address the reality that Gaza is currently uninhabitable and residents cannot humanely live in a territory covered in debris and unexploded ordnance.
Countries in the region had strongly objected to Trump's vision because it requires the approximately two million Palestinians who remain in Gaza to be moved out of the strip to other countries, including Egypt and Jordan, to allow reconstruction to be carried out safely – amid uncertainty over whether they would be allowed to return.
The plan adopted by leaders of Arab League nations centres on Hamas ceding control of Gaza to an interim administration until a reformed Palestinian Authority was able to form a government, would be implemented without displacing the population.
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