RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — Arab leaders will gather in Saudi Arabia on Friday to counter United States (US) President Donald Trump’s plan for US control of Gaza and the expulsion of its inhabitants, diplomatic and government sources said.

Trump’s controversial takeover plan stirred rare unity among Arab states which roundly rejected the idea, but they could still disagree over who will govern the Palestinian territory and who will pay for reconstruction.

Umer Karim, an expert on Saudi foreign policy, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) the summit would be the “most consequential” in decades in relation to the wider Arab world and the Palestinian issue.

Trump provoked international outrage when he announced that 2.4 million Gazans should be moved to neighboring Egypt and Jordan.

Meeting with Trump in Washington on 11 February, Jordan’s King Abdullah II said Egypt would present a plan for a way forward.

A Saudi source said the talks would discuss “a version of the Egyptian plan,” the king mentioned.

Friday’s summit was originally planned for Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan.

However, it has been expanded to include the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries and the Palestinian Authority.

For Palestinians, any attempt to force them from Gaza would have echoes of what the Arab world calls the “Nakba” or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled in the fighting that accompanied Israel’s creation in 1948.

Egyptian former diplomat Mohamed Hegazy described a plan “in three technical phases over a period of three to five years.’”

“Heavy machinery will be brought in to remove debris, while designated safe zones will be identified within Gaza to temporarily relocate residents,” Hegazy said.

The second phase will require an international conference to provide details of reconstruction and would focus on rebuilding utility infrastructure, he said.

“The final phase will oversee the urban planning of Gaza, the construction of housing units, and the provision of educational and healthcare services.”