Egypt is stepping up efforts to implement the remaining phases of US President Donald Trump's ceasefire plan for Gaza, amid fears that the Iran war is shifting the world's attention away and turning the Palestinian territory into a forgotten crisis.
The Egyptian president and foreign minister are escalating diplomatic engagements with world leaders, influential diplomats and officials to bring the 20-point, three-phase plan, which went into effect in October last year, back on track.
During a 1 April meeting in Cairo with High Representative for Gaza Nickolay Mladenov, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty underscored the importance of implementing the US president's ceasefire plan amid the current regional escalation.
There is an urgent need, the Egyptian foreign minister said, for all parties to honour their commitments in the light of Phase II of the ceasefire plan, including the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the territory.
Implementation of Phase II of the Gaza ceasefire plan started in January this year.
It includes the formation of a national committee for Gaza's administration and the establishment of President Trump's Board of Peace, an international oversight mechanism headed by Mladenov.
The same phase also includes the decommissioning of the weapons of the formerly Gaza-ruling Hamas and the destruction of its network of underground tunnels.
These measures should be followed by additional Israeli withdrawals from Gaza as well as the establishment of a transitional technocratic government to pave the way for Gaza's reconstruction.
Egypt has formulated a comprehensive reconstruction plan for the Palestinian territory, but implementing it will require concerted international efforts, especially given its $53 billion cost.
Competing with the Egyptian blueprint is another, drafted by Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner , who wants to turn the territory into a glitzy, AI-powered tourist oasis that attracts tens of billions of dollars in investments. Pushing hard Together with Qatar and Türkiye, Egypt was instrumental in brokering the Gaza ceasefire plan in October last year, following two years of devastating Israeli attacks that left most of the coastal Palestinian enclave in rubble and caused the death of over 70,000 people, especially children and women.
Apart from the Egyptian foreign minister, the plan was at the centre of talks between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and a host of other world leaders in the past few days, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.
Cairo's intensified push for moving ahead with the implementation of the Gaza ceasefire plan comes amid fears that the war in Iran will put Gaza on the back burner, political analysts in the Egyptian capital said.
Ambassador Rakha Ahmed, a former assistant to the Egyptian foreign minister, said diverting attention from Israeli atrocities in Gaza and attempts to annex the occupied West Bank is one of the main goals of the Israel-US war on Iran.
"Everybody is now focused on the Iran war and its heavy toll on the international economy," Ambassador Ahmed told The New Arab .
"The same war brought the Gaza ceasefire plan to a screeching halt," he added.
He expected the difficulties the ceasefire plan goes through to reflect negatively on Gaza's population, even increasing their suffering.
Phase I of the ceasefire plan included the release of all living Israeli hostages in Hamas's custody in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
It also ensured an increase in the humanitarian aid entering Gaza through the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian-Gaza border.
Israel also withdrew from some parts of Gaza to the Yellow Line , a demarcation line that ensures Israeli presence in over half of Gaza.
Nevertheless, the implementation of Phase II of the plan was marred by repeated Israeli violations , which continue to claim Palestinian lives. Gaza's population, now squeezed into less than half of their 360-square-kilometre territory, also points to how that humanitarian aid entered through the Rafah crossing is far from enough. Deep fears The lack of adequate humanitarian aid and repeated Israeli violations contribute to worsening humanitarian conditions across Gaza , doing away with the positive effects of the ceasefire, Palestinian analysts said.
"Humanitarian conditions keep deteriorating, simply because the war has stopped on paper only," Palestinian political analyst Ayman al-Raqab said.
Speaking to TNA , al-Raqab, a professor of political science at AlQuds Open University in Ramallah, added that more Palestinians continue to lose their lives because of what he described as "unstoppable" Israeli violations of the ceasefire.
"Worse still, food supplies are limited, and medicines are nowhere to be found," he added.
The Israeli-US war on Iran has stalled the implementation of Phase II of the Gaza ceasefire plan, especially with Washington, Tel Aviv, the Europeans and most Arab states being preoccupied with this war.
However, this raises concerns in Cairo, where the main focus remains on the need to begin Gaza's reconstruction as part of Egypt's bid to make the destroyed coastal enclave habitable again.
The Egyptians, analysts said, are afraid that the continued deterioration of living conditions in the Palestinian territory would create a natural stampede into the Egyptian side of the border—a situation that feeds into Israel's original plan of depopulating and settling Gaza.
"Life is becoming so hard in Gaza , and this is why people may not want to keep staying in it," Ambassador Ahmed said.
He referred to Egypt's repeated rejection of taking in Gaza refugees, which was initially made in February last year in response to Trump's proposal to take over the Palestinian territory and build it into a " Middle East Riviera ".
Ambassador Ahmed even expected Egypt to organise an international conference on Gaza's reconstruction soon after the Iran war ends. Challenges Financing for the Gaza reconstruction plan becomes uncertain with Gulf countries fraying under Iranian attacks and the international market facing a potential economic crisis because of the US-Israel war on Iran, observers said.
The war is undermining the international economy, including the economies of Gulf countries, on which hopes were pinned to provide most of the financing needed to implement the reconstruction plan, they added.
This compounds other challenges facing the implementation of Phase II of the ceasefire plan, including core disagreements over Hamas's future role, Israeli security demands, and the governance of post-war Gaza .
Progress in implementing this phase is also largely contingent on de-escalation with Iran and renewed high-level diplomacy, analysts said.
"This high-level diplomacy has to include pressure by Washington on Israel to move ahead with implementing the ceasefire plan in full," Professor al-Raqab said.
"President Trump needs to know that the Gaza ceasefire will continue to be a mission unaccomplished in the absence of this pressure," he added.