“The Egypt plan is now an Arab plan,” announced the secretary general of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit at the end of this hours-long gathering.

Without referring specifically to President Trump’s ideas, he underlined that “the Arab stance is to reject any displacement, whether it is voluntary or forced”.

Egypt had produced a detailed blueprint, with a 91-page glossy document including images of leafy neighbourhoods and grand public buildings, to counter a US scheme labelled as a “Middle East Riviera” which shocked the Arab world and beyond.

What sets this new plan apart is it is not just about property development; its banners are politics and the rights of Palestinians.

In his opening remarks, Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi also called for a parallel plan alongside the physical reconstruction to move towards what is known as the two state solution – a Palestinian state alongside Israel. This is widely seen by Arab states, and many others, as the only lasting solution to this perpetual conflict, but it is firmly ruled out by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies.

This new plan proposes that Gaza would be run, temporarily, by a “Gaza management committee under the umbrella of the Palestinian government” comprised of qualified technocrats.

It glosses over the issue of what role, if any, Hamas, will play. There is a vague reference to the “obstacle” of militant groups and said this issue would be resolved if the causes of the conflict with Israel were removed.

Some Arab states are known to be calling for the complete dismantling of Hamas; others believe those decisions should be left up to the Palestinians. Hamas is said to have accepted it will not play a role in running Gaza but has made it clear that disarming is a red line.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has described President Trump’s plan as “visionary”, has repeatedly ruled out any future role for Hamas, but also for the Palestinian Authority.

The other sensitive issue of security was dealt with by calling on the UN Security Council to deploy international peacekeepers.

And a major international conference will be held next month to raise the huge sums of money necessary for this rebuilding project.

Wealthy Gulf states appear willing to foot some of the colossal bill. But no one is ready to invest unless they are absolutely convinced buildings won’t come crashing down in another war.

A fragile ceasefire which now seems to be on the brink of collapse will only amplify that hesitation.

This new Arab plan to rebuild Gaza would unfold in three phases including an initial period of about six months, called the early recovery stage, to start clearing the massive amounts of rubble as well as unexploded ordinance. Two subsequent stages would last several years.

During this time displaced Palestinians, said to number 1.5 million, would be housed in temporary containers. Photographs in the glossy brochure present them as well-built and designed housing units set in pretty landscaped areas.

President Trump continues to wonder aloud “Why wouldn’t they want to move?” His description of Gaza as a “demolition site” underlines how the territory lies in utter ruin. The UN says 90% of homes are damaged or destroyed.

All the basics of a life worth living, from schools and hospitals to sewage systems and electricity lines, are shredded.

The US President deepened the shock and anger around his ideas when he posted an AI-generated video of a golden Gaza on his Truth Social account which featured a shimmering statue of himself, his close ally Elon Musk enjoying snacks on the beach, and he and the Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu sunning themselves, shirtless. All to a catchy tune, with lines like “Trump Gaza is finally here”.

“They had President Trump in mind,” remarked one Western diplomat who attended a briefing about Egypt’s plan at the foreign ministry in Cairo. “It’s very glossy and very well-prepared.”

Cairo’s proposal is said to have drawn on a wide range of expertise, from World Bank professionals on sustainability, to Dubai developers on hotels.

There are also lessons learned from other ravaged cities which rose from the ruins including Hiroshima, Beirut, and Berlin. And the proposed designs are also influenced by Egypt’s own experience in developing its “New Cairo”, its grand megaproject which has seen a new administrative capital rising from the desert – at great expense.

The American President has said he won’t “force” his ideas on anyone but still insists his plan is the one “that really works”.

Now it is up to the Arab states and their allies to prove that their plan is the only plan.

Egypt has produced another plan with a glossy brochure, 91 pages long and complete with some gleaming Emirati influenced designs, to counter the US scheme which shocked the Arab world and beyond.

Will a “Dubai on the Mediterranean” rise one day from the rubble of Gaza instead of the US’s “Riviera of the Middle East”?

What sets Cairo’s plan apart is that this blueprint is not just about property development; its banners are politics and the rights of Palestinians.

A leak of the draft statement obtained by the BBC underlines it is owned by Arab states and the Palestinians.

It will be “presented by Egypt, in full co-ordination with Palestine and Arab countries, based on studies conducted by the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme regarding early recovery and reconstruction in Gaza as a comprehensive Arab plan”.

Most critically, it allows more than two million residents of Gaza to hold on to what is left of their lives, including their right to remain on land which generations of their families have called home.

President Trump continues to wonder aloud: “Why wouldn’t they want to move?” His description of Gaza as a “demolition site” underlines how, after almost 16 months of grievous war, the territory lies in utter ruin.

The UN says 90% of homes are damaged or destroyed. All the basics of a life worth living, from schools and hospitals to sewage systems and electricity lines, are shredded.

The leaked draft document does not explicitly refer to President Trump’s plan to “take over” the territory and move the Palestinians out, mainly to neighbouring countries. But it makes clear that moves like that will only trigger more disasters.

“Any malicious attempts to displace Palestinians or annex any part of occupied Palestinian territories would lead to new phases of conflict, undermine stability opportunities, expand conflict into other countries in the region, and pose a clear threat to peace foundations in the Middle East,” it warns.

Ever since the US president suddenly spoke of his plan, there has been huge pressure on Arab states not just to come up with an alternative plan but to prove it can work.

Property developers know presentation matters.

President Trump deepened the shock and anger around his ideas when he posted an AI-generated video of a golden Gaza on his Truth Social account last week.

It featured a shimmering statue of himself, his close ally Elon Musk enjoying snacks on the beach, and he and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sunning themselves, shirtless. All to a catchy tune with lines like “Trump Gaza is finally here”.

“They had President Trump in mind,” remarked one Western diplomat who attended a briefing about Egypt’s plan at the foreign ministry in Cairo. “It’s very glossy and very well-prepared.”

Cairo’s reconstruction plans, which the BBC has obtained, with their alluring images of leafy neighbourhoods and grand columned buildings, is said to have drawn on a wide range of expertise, from World Bank professionals on sustainability, to Dubai developers on hotels.

There are also lessons learned from other ravaged cities which rose from the ruins including Hiroshima, Beirut, and Berlin.

And the proposed designs are also influenced by Egypt’s own experience in developing its “New Cairo” – its grand megaproject which has seen a new administrative capital rising from the desert – at great expense.

Advertisement

Who will pay for Gaza’s build is a major issue. Egypt is proposing that an international conference be convened as soon as possible for the “recovery and reconstruction”.

Wealthy Gulf states appear willing to foot some of the colossal bill the UN estimates will be around $50bn (£39bn).

But no-one is ready to invest unless they are absolutely convinced buildings will not come crashing down in another war.

A fragile ceasefire which now seems to be on the brink of collapse will only amplify that hesitation.

“We will hold intensive talks with major donor countries once the plan is adopted,” Egypt’s Foreign Minister, Badr Abdelatty, said on Sunday, underlining a hope that capitals the world over will help come up with the cash.

Another sensitive aspect is who will run Gaza once this current confrontation ends.

A leak of the draft statement, backed up by sources who have also seen the document, say there is a proposal for a transitional arrangement, a committee of technocrats called a “Gaza Management Committee under the umbrella of the Palestinian government”.

Benjamin Netanyahu, who describes President Trump’s Gaza plan as “visionary”, has repeatedly ruled out any future role for Hamas, but also for the Palestinian Authority.

The draft document “urges the United Nations Security Council to deploy international peacekeeping forces that contribute to ensuring security for both Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”

Getting approval from Arab leaders for this new plan may be the easy part.

Hamas, which is said to have accepted it will not play a role in running Gaza, still has military and political sway on the ground.

Some Arab states are known to be calling for its complete dismantling; others believe those decisions should be left up to the Palestinians. Hamas itself says disarming is a red line.

As for President Trump, he has said he won’t “force” his ideas on anyone but still insists his plan is the one “that really works”.

Until recently, King Thutmose II’s tomb was the last undiscovered royal tomb of the 18th Egyptian dynasty.

But a British-Egyptian team located it in the Western Valleys of the Theban Necropolis near the city of Luxor. Researchers had thought the burial chambers of the 18th dynasty pharaohs were on the other end of the mountain, near the Valley of the Kings.

The crew found it an area known for the resting places of royal women, but when they got into the burial chamber they found it decorated – the sign of a pharaoh.

“And part of the ceiling was still intact – a blue-painted ceiling with yellow stars on it. And blue-painted ceilings with yellow stars are only found in king’s tombs,” said the field director of the mission Dr Piers Litherland.

He told the BBC’s Newshour programme he felt overwhelmed in the moment.

“When I came out, my wife was waiting outside and the only thing I could do was burst into tears,” he said.

“When you come across something that you’re not expecting to find, it’s emotionally extremely turbulent really.”

He said the discovery solved the mystery of where the tombs of early 18th dynasty kings are located.

Researchers found Thutmose II’s mummified remains two centuries ago but its original burial site had never been located.

Thutmose II was an ancestor of Tutankhamun, whose reign is believed to have been from about 1493 to 1479 BCE. Tutankhamun’s tomb was found by British archaeologists in 1922.

He is best known for being the husband of Queen Hatshepsut, regarded as one of Egypt’s greatest pharaohs and one of the few female pharaohs who ruled in her own right.

Dr Litherland said the “large staircase and a very large descending corridor” of the tomb suggested grandeur.

They had to crawl through a 10m passageway, through a roughly 40sq cm opening, before making it into the chamber.

There they discovered the blue ceiling and the chamber decorated with scenes from the Amduat, a religious text which was reserved for kings. That was the key sign they had found a king’s tomb, Dr Litherland said.

Artefacts, including fragments of alabaster jars which bore the inscriptions of the names of Thutmose II and Hatshepsut, provided definitive evidence. These are the first objects to be found associated with Thutmose II’s burial.

Dr Litherland’s team has theorised that this tomb was flooded about six years after the burial and so the contents could have been moved to another location during ancient times. He said his team had a rough idea of where that second tomb was and that it could still be intact with treasures.

The discovery of the pharaoh’s tomb caps off more than 12 years of work by the joint team from Dr Litherland’s New Kingdom Research Foundation and Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

The team has previously excavated 54 tombs in the western part of the Theban mountain in Luxor, and had also established identities of more than 30 royal wives and court women.

“This is the first royal tomb to be discovered since the ground-breaking find of King Tutankhamun’s burial chamber in 1922,” said Egypt’s minister of tourism and antiquities Sherif Fathy.

“It is an extraordinary moment for Egyptology and the broader understanding of our shared human story.”

In the past few days here, Egyptian intelligence officials have been meeting Hamas leaders to shore up the shaky ceasefire. Tens of millions of Egyptians – tuning into the constant news updates – already feel their country’s intimate involvement in the war in Gaza.

But now – with President Trump’s surprise post-war vision, which proposes displacing two million Palestinians to “a parcel of land” in Egypt and Jordan, so that the US can take over the territory – they fear an existential threat.

Egyptians flocking to Friday prayers say Trump’s idea needs a reality check.

“We’d be moving the battlefront from their land into our own!” says Abdo, a civil engineer. “The Israeli army and the Palestinian resistance are eternal enemies and there is no peace between them. This would mean us giving Israel a pretext to attack them on our land in the name of self-defence.”

Others stress how the idea of permanently displacing Gazans would be tantamount to the liquidation of the Palestinian quest for statehood. But, they say, it would also breed extremism and cause instability in Egypt.

To try to convey a similar message, Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has launched a behind-the-scenes diplomatic blitz. He is facing one of the most challenging moments of his rule, which could reset relations with his country’s key Western ally.

Egypt is dangling the threat to its peace treaty with neighbouring Israel – long seen as a cornerstone of stability and US influence in the Middle East.

Since Washington brokered the breakthrough 1979 deal, it has seen Cairo as a close ally. Egypt has consistently been one of the biggest recipients of US military aid, agreed as part of the treaty. Last year, it was allocated $1.3bn in military assistance.

However, on Egypt’s influential night-time talk shows, commentators have been voicing strong criticism. American military aid “does not constitute any value to Egypt,” Ahmed Mousa, a popular host on a private TV channel, recently said. He insisted Egyptians refuse “pressure” or “blackmail”.

Egypt’s leader is choosing a different approach to Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who recently met Trump at the White House. There, Abdullah adopted a placatory tone and promised to take in sick Gazan children, while not giving ground on the idea of resettlement for Gazans.

Egyptian reports say that Sisi refuses to visit Washington while displacement is on the agenda, although the US maintains no trip has been scheduled.

Egypt’s own economy has been hard-hit by the Gaza war; it says it has lost $8bn in Suez Canal revenues due to attacks by Yemen’s Houthis on ships in the Red Sea which began in response to Israel’s Gaza offensive.

The hope now is that by devising its own “masterplan” for Gaza reconstruction, Egypt can both avoid the hugely problematic mass displacement of Palestinians and boost its own economy.

The Egyptian real estate tycoon, Hisham Talaat Moustafa – who is close to Sisi – has been on TV, pushing a $20bn (£16bn; 19bn euros) proposal for building 200,000 homes in Gaza in just three years, without Palestinians being moved away.

The plan is feasible, says Professor Mustafa Kamel al-Sayyid of Cairo University: “I don’t think it will be impossible for the Egyptians to find safe areas for Palestinians to move there while their part of Gaza is being rebuilt.”

Various “innovative ideas” are being put forward, he adds, including one for rubble to be used as a building material in reconstruction.

Speaking ahead of a Middle East trip, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged that Arab states “don’t like” the Trump Gaza plan. “Now, if someone has a better plan – and we hope they do,” he went on, “now’s the time to present it.”

Some Arab leaders are due to meet soon in Saudi Arabia, with Egypt calling for an Arab summit to discuss an alternative “comprehensive vision” for Gaza in Cairo on 27 February.

Proposals are believed to involve a Gulf-led fund to help foot the hefty bill for reconstruction, and a deal to sideline Hamas. Israel and the US have made clear that the Palestinian armed group which has governed in Gaza since 2007 must have no future role.

Egypt’s idea involves training a new security force and identifying Palestinian technocrats – not affiliated to any political faction – who would be in charge of early recovery projects.

However, coming up with a deal that satisfies Israel’s hardline government will be challenging.

The former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken envisaged world powers and the UN playing a temporary role in Gaza, until the Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs parts of the occupied West Bank, could take charge. But the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, sought to block the PA’s involvement, as part of his opposition to Palestinian statehood.

Egypt, along with other Arab states, remains committed to the long-time international formula for peace, the two-state solution which conceives an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. Its foreign ministry has stated that it wants to work with President Trump to “achieve a comprehensive and just peace in the region by reaching a just settlement of the Palestinian cause.”

Back outside the mosque in Cairo, worshippers quietly point out how their country must try to avoid troubling repetitions of history.

Already Egypt says it hosts more than 100,000 Gazans. With the idea of taking in many more, some worry their country could become a base for Hamas – an ideological offshoot of the country’s own banned Muslim Brotherhood – which, they argue, could be reinforced, stirring up domestic turmoil.

Ultimately there is strong support for Egypt taking a strong position and standing up to the US.

“Life is getting more difficult for us with the number of refugees we’ve already got. Imagine if we take in more!” exclaimed a shop owner, who did not want to give his name.

“The Palestinians need to live on their own land not ours. We don’t need anything from the USA.

“I stand by Sisi and the government and we’re ready to face the full consequences.”

Researchers who examined nine mummies found that though there was some difference in the intensity of their odours, all could be described as “woody”, “spicy” and “sweet”.

They say recreating the composition of the smells chemically will allow others to experience a mummy’s whiff – and help to tell when the bodies inside may be starting to rot.

“We want to share the experience we had smelling the mummified bodies, so we’re reconstructing the smell to be presented in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo,” Cecilia Bembibre, one of the researchers, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

During the mummification process, ancient Egyptians would surround the body with pleasant smells as an important part of preparing a spirit to enter the afterlife.

As a result, pharaohs and members of the nobility were adorned with oils, waxes and balms during the mummification process.

“In films and books, terrible things happen to those who smell mummified bodies,” said Dr Bembibre said.

“We were surprised at the pleasantness of them.”

The authors of the academic study, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society on Thursday, had to get the smell from inside the sarcophagus without interfering with the mummy inside.

The researchers, from UCL and the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, did so by inserting a tiny tube so they were able measure the scent without taking any physical samples.

Dr Bembibre explained that heritage scientists are always trying to find “non-destructive” ways to discover new information.

Visitors who smell the scents in the museums will be able to experience ancient Egypt and the mummification process from a totally different perspective.

Ally Louks, an English literature supervisor at the University of Cambridge who wrote her PhD thesis on the politics of smell, described this as a “really innovative” way to communicate history.

“To engage your nose produces a strong emotional and physical reaction,” she told the BBC.

“We know smells were essential to social, religious and personal practises [in ancient Egypt],” Dr Louks said.

Matija Strlič, another member of the study team, told the Associated Press the scents may even suggest what social class a mummy was from.

“We believe that this approach is potentially of huge interest to other types of museum collections,” he said.

As well as providing museum-goers with a new sensory insight into mummies, the discovery also presents a potential breakthrough for mummy conservationists.

The researchers used a technique called gas chromatography to separate the different smells inside the sarcophagus that combined to make its scent.

They found odours relating to the break-down of animal fats used in the embalming process, which could indicate the body is beginning to decompose.

Because of these findings, it will be possible to “practically intervene” in the conservation of the mummies, identifying how best to store and wrap the bodies, the research paper said.

“This is useful for conservators who care for this collection [as] we can ensure it reaches future generations,” Dr Bembibre said.

Following talks in Cairo, the Palestinian armed group said mediators from Egypt and Qatar had confirmed they would “remove obstacles”.

There was no response from Israel. But Egyptian and Qatari reports also said mediators had bridged the gaps between the two sides and both were committed to continue implementation.

On Tuesday, Israel said the ceasefire would end if Hamas did not return hostages by Saturday. Hamas had earlier said it was postponing releases over what it claimed were Israeli violations.

Hamas said these included a failure to allow in the agreed amounts of vital humanitarian aid, including tents and shelters, which Israel denied.

The group’s threat to derail the deal prompted US President Donald Trump to propose Israel cancel the agreement altogether and “let hell break out” unless “all of the hostages” were returned by Saturday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he welcomed Trump’s demand and warned: “If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon [10:00 GMT], the ceasefire will end and the [Israeli military] will resume intense fighting until the final defeat of Hamas.”

However, there were conflicting messages from Israeli officials about whether he was demanding the release of all 76 hostages still in Gaza – in line with Trump’s ultimatum – or just the three due to be freed this weekend.

On Wednesday, an Egyptian security source told the BBC that Egypt and Qatar were “intensifying their diplomatic efforts in an attempt to salvage the ceasefire agreement”, as Hamas’s leader for Gaza, Khalil al-Hayya, arrived in Cairo to hold talks with Egypt’s intelligence chief and other officials.

On Thursday, Hamas put out a statement saying they focused on the need for all terms of the deal to be fulfilled, particularly regarding deliveries of caravans, tents, heavy construction equipment, medical supplies and fuel.

It added that the talks were “positive” and that the mediators had agreed to work to “remove obstacles and close gaps”.

“Accordingly, Hamas reaffirms its commitment to implementing the agreement as signed, including the exchange of prisoners according to the specified timeline.”

At the same time, Egyptian state-run Al Qahera TV reported that Egypt and Qatar had successfully “overcome obstacles” and that Israel and Hamas were committed to fully implementing the ceasefire deal.

Qatar-based Al Jazeera TV also said the negotiations had been successful and that mobile homes and heavy machinery would be allowed into Gaza on Thursday.

However, Israeli media then cited the Israeli prime minister’s office as calling the Al Jazeera report “fake news” and saying there was “no basis” to it.

An Israeli government spokesman later clarified the denial, writing on X: “There is no entry of caravans or heavy equipment into the Gaza Strip, and there is no co-ordination for this.”

The first phase of the ceasefire deal is supposed to last six weeks and see a total of 33 Israeli hostages exchanged for about 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees from Gaza.

So far, 16 living Israeli hostages have been freed since the ceasefire took effect on 19 January. Hamas has also handed over five Thai hostages outside the terms of the deal.

The 17 other Israeli hostages due to be released during the first phase are two children, one woman, five men over the age of 50, and nine men under 50. They are supposed to be handed over in the next three weeks. Both sides have said eight of these hostages are dead, but only one has been named.

Negotiations for the ceasefire’s second phase – which should see the 43 remaining hostages released, a full Israeli withdrawal and a permanent ceasefire – have not yet begun.

The deal has also seen Israeli forces withdraw from densely populated areas of Gaza, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians return to their homes in the north, and hundreds of aid lorries allowed into the territory each day.

The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

More than 48,230 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Most of Gaza’s population has also been displaced multiple times, almost 70% of buildings are estimated to be damaged or destroyed, the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed, and there are shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter.

The Egyptian foreign ministry said it hoped to co-operate with the Trump administration to reach “a just settlement of the Palestinian cause”.

It followed Trump’s meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah on Tuesday, where he doubled down on his plan for the US to take over Gaza and permanently move the two million Palestinians living there to Jordan, Egypt and other locations.

Abdullah said every Arab state rejected the idea, and that Egypt would present an alternative.

The UN has warned that any forced displacement of the territory’s population would be illegal under international law and “tantamount to ethnic cleansing”.

It comes amid growing concern that the fighting in Gaza could resume, after Israel’s prime minister warned Hamas it would end the ceasefire if the Palestinian armed group “does not return our hostages by Saturday”.

Benjamin Netanyahu issued the ultimatum after Hamas said it was postponing freeing more hostages until further notice, claiming Israel had violated the terms of the ceasefire deal

Sitting alongside King Abdullah at the White House on Tuesday, Trump said there had been “great progress” on his proposal to take over Gaza.

“With the United States being in control of that piece of land… you can have stability in the Middle East for the first time,” he told reporters. “And the Palestinians, or the people that live now in Gaza, will be living beautifully in another location.”

When pressed by the reporters to comment on the plan to force the Palestinians to relocate to Jordan, King Abdullah said: “We have to keep in mind that there is a plan from Egypt and the Arab countries.”

Later, the king wrote on X that he had “reiterated Jordan’s steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank” during the meeting, adding: “This is the unified Arab position.”

Trump had said before the meeting that he could “conceivably” halt aid to Jordan and Egypt if they refused to co-operate with his plan and take in displaced Gazans.

Not long after the king’s remarks, Egypt’s foreign ministry said it hoped to co-operate with the Trump administration to reach “a just settlement of the Palestinian cause”.

“In this context, Egypt affirms its intention to present a comprehensive vision for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, in a manner that ensures the Palestinian people stay on their land, and in line with the legitimate and legal rights of this people,” it added, without giving any details.

President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi also told Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a phone call on Tuesday that the reconstruction of Gaza must happen “without displacing Palestinians”, his office said.

It was not immediately clear when Egypt would present its alternative Gaza plan.

Cairo is due to host an emergency Arab summit to discuss the “serious” developments for Palestinians on 27 February, while King Abdullah said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had invited Arab leaders to Riyadh at an unspecified date.

Sisi was also given an open invitation by Trump to visit the White House during a phone call earlier this month. However, Egyptian security sources told Reuters news agency on Wednesday that Sisi would not travel to Washington if the agenda included Trump’s plan.

Abeer Barakat, a Palestinian teacher in Gaza City, told the BBC she believed Trump’s plan was “impossible to achieve” but that it had infuriated people.

“We worry that Jordan and Egypt are going to bend from Trump’s threats,” she said.

Palestinians fear a repeat of the Nakba – the Arabic word for “catastrophe” – when hundreds of thousands fled or were driven from their homes before and during the war that followed the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.

Many of those refugees ended up in Gaza, where they and their descendants make up three quarters of the population. Another 900,000 registered refugees live in the occupied West Bank, while 3.4 million others live in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, according to the UN.

Asked by reporters on Monday if the US would force Palestinians to leave Gaza, Trump replied that “they’re all going to want to leave”. He also said in an interview that Gazans would have no right of return because he was “talking about building a permanent place for them”.

The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

More than 48,220 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Most of Gaza’s population has also been displaced multiple times, almost 70% of buildings are estimated to be damaged or destroyed, the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed, and there are shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter.

The Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas has looked shaky since it came into force on 19 January but now looks the closest yet to totally falling apart.

A senior Egyptian source told the BBC that regional mediators Egypt and Qatar were “intensifying their diplomatic efforts in an attempt to salvage the ceasefire agreement”.

A top-level Hamas delegation has now arrived in Cairo for talks “to contain the current crisis”, a Hamas official told the BBC. He reiterated his group’s “full commitment” to the terms of the deal.

On Tuesday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon, the ceasefire will end and the [Israeli military] will resume intense fighting.”

However, there has been mixed messaging on whether he means all 76 hostages still in Gaza – in line with the high-stakes ultimatum recommended by US President Donald Trump.

Trump was reacting to a Hamas threat to derail the agreement on Monday.

It complained of Israeli ceasefire violations, in particular relating to aid, and warned that it would delay the release of hostages on Saturday.

In the past week, the president’s new radical plan for a US takeover of Gaza – without its two million Palestinian residents – has also changed the context for the ceasefire which his administration helped to broker.

So, what more do we know about what has been happening behind the scenes?

When it comes to the outcome of the four-hour Israeli security cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Israeli journalists admitted puzzlement over contradictory and confusing briefings.

After the Israeli prime minister’s video message demanded the release of “our” hostages, the first reports – quoting an unnamed senior Israeli official – said this referred to the original three male hostages scheduled to be freed.

It was then said that Israel expected the final nine living hostages slated for release in the six-week first phase of the ceasefire to be freed, which is supposed to see a total of 33 captives handed over.

Key ministers then began to weigh in. Miri Regev – a close ally of Netanyahu – said on X the decision was “very clear” and echoed the Trump demand. She said: “By Saturday, everyone will be released!”

The far-right Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich – who has threatened to leave Netanyahu’s coalition if there is not a return to fighting at the end of the six-week ceasefire deal – went further still.

On social media, he proposed telling Hamas to release all the hostages or else have “the gates of hell” opened, with no fuel, water or humanitarian aid entering Gaza.

He said there should be “only fire and brimstone” from Israeli warplanes and tanks, with the strip completely occupied and its population expelled.

“We have all the international backing for this matter,” he stated.

His comments indicate how Trump’s post-war vision for Gaza has strengthened the far-right in Israel.

That is said to worry the Israeli security chiefs who negotiated the current ceasefire deal and believe its collapse will endanger hostages’ lives.

Israeli media report that they are pushing for a way to bring back the next three captives held by Hamas on schedule at the weekend.

Hostages’ families and their supporters have been alarmed by the latest developments, as have war-weary Gazans.

The fact that the Hamas leader for Gaza, Khalil al-Hayya, is leading a delegation to follow up on implementation in Cairo, shows that the armed group is also trying to get the ceasefire agreement back on track.

Since 19 January, the deal has seen a total of 16 Israeli hostages brought home in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Five Thai farm workers were also released.

At the same time, Israeli troops have withdrawn to just inside the perimeter of Gaza, including along the Egypt border.

The relative calm has allowed hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to return to their own neighbourhoods and brought in a surge of humanitarian aid.

However, the current impasse stems from Hamas’s claim that Israel has not upheld its promises for the first phase of the truce.

It says that this required Israeli authorities to allow about 300,000 tents and 60,000 caravans into Gaza.

With so many people returning to the ruins of their homes – during cold, wet wintery weather – such shelters have been desperately needed.

Fuel and generators are also said to be in short supply – especially in the north of Gaza – where it is urgently required, especially for water pumps and bakeries.

It is hard to verify exactly what has gone into the strip.

According to figures quoted by the UN, “since the ceasefire came into effect, 644,000 people across Gaza have received shelter assistance including tents, sealing-off materials and tarpaulins”.

The Israeli military body Cogat said that Israel was “committed to and is fulfilling its obligation to facilitate the entry of 600 humanitarian aid trucks into the Gaza Strip each day”.

It added: “According to the data available to us, since the agreement came into effect, hundreds of thousands of tents have entered the Gaza Strip.”

Despite the conflicting accounts, it can be assumed that issues over aid that Israel allows into Gaza could be resolved by mediators.

“Cairo and Doha are urging all parties to adhere to the terms of the agreement amid political and field complexities that make the task more challenging,” the senior Egyptian source told the BBC.

“The continuation of the ceasefire is in everyone’s interest, and we warn that the collapse of the agreement will lead to a new wave of violence with serious regional repercussions.”

Even if the immediate crisis can be overcome by this weekend, then it will still leave the next stage of ceasefire talks unresolved.

The first phase of the deal is supposed to end in March, unless Hamas and Israel agree an extension. So far, negotiations on that have been put off.

The Israeli prime minister delayed discussions on the next phase amid pressure from within his governing coalition and growing evidence during the ceasefire that – in contradiction to his war goals – Hamas remains a significant political and military force in Gaza.

During hostage handovers and aid distribution, Hamas has sought to project an image of its own power.

Though it has previously signalled willingness to share power with other Palestinian factions, it still appears unlikely to disarm.

On top of this, Trump doubling down on his idea of turning Gaza into a Mediterranean travel destination – after relocating those living there to Jordan and Egypt – has caused shock and outrage across the Arab world.

Egypt says it has formulated its own comprehensive Gaza reconstruction plan – which will not involve Palestinians leaving their land.

The leaders of Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are expected to meet ahead of a conference in Cairo on 27 February.

The ongoing dispute about the future of Gaza adds to the confusion and sense of deep mistrust amid efforts to solve the present issues.

Pro-democracy activist Alaa Abdel Fattah – who holds both British and Egyptian citizenship – was due to be freed in September 2024 but remains in jail.

His UK-born mother Laila Soueif has consumed nothing but herbal tea, black coffee and rehydration salts since then.

Speaking outside Downing Street on Monday, the visibly frail 68-year-old said she feared she is running out of time to secure his release and called on the prime minister to act.

No 10 has been approached for comment.

In 2019, Alaa Abdel Fattah was arrested on suspicion of spreading false news – a charge human rights groups have called spurious.

He was convicted in 2021 and Egyptian authorities have refused to count the more than two years he spent in pre-trial detention towards his time served.

Speaking outside the gates of Downing Street on Monday, Ms Soueif – who is also a prominent pro-democracy campaigner – told reporters: “I would like the prime minister’s personal assurance that even if I die during the coming days, this case is not going to go away.”

Despite asking for a meeting with the prime minister, campaigners claimed Sir Keir has not responded to Ms Soueif’s request – although he has exchanged letters with her.

“We can’t talk to the prime minister across the newspapers,” she told journalists. “I’d like him to meet me.”

Ms Soueif said she had lost a considerable amount of weight very quickly due to her hunger strike. Campaigners said her body weight had fallen by 28.3kg (4.5st), around a third of her starting weight.

They also said Ms Soueif was taken to the emergency department of London’s St Thomas’s Hospital earlier in February when her blood sugar and blood pressure dropped to “concerningly low levels”.

“During the past four days, my weight has been going down at a very alarming rate,” Ms Soueif said.

“I’ve been losing like half a kilo every day.

“So really I’m not feeling great. I’m still on my feet, which I find a miracle.”

She said it was vital that Sir Keir speaks directly to Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

“Somebody has to persuade Mr Sisi to give the green light for a process that will release Alaa. The only person who can do that is Mr Starmer, the prime minister”.

“I certainly don’t think that we have much more time. I don’t have time.”

The contractors are tasked with ensuring the vehicles carry no weapons through the checkpoint.

Video footage showed hundreds of cars, vans and donkey carts queuing to go through, as tens of thousands of pedestrians walked up the coastal road to the west without screening.

Displaced Palestinians were due to start returning to the north at the weekend, but Israel delayed this until Hamas agreed to free the Israeli female civilian hostage Arbel Yehud and two others on Thursday.

Mediator Qatar – which brokered the ceasefire deal along with the US and Egypt – announced on Sunday night that Hamas would also hand over three additional hostages on Saturday and provide information on statuses of the remaining hostages scheduled to be released during the six-week first phase.

The Israeli prime minister’s office later confirmed receipt of the list of information from Hamas and said Ms Yehud would be released along with the female Israeli soldier Agam Berger and one other hostage.

Seven hostages have so far been freed in exchange for almost 300 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails since the ceasefire began on 19 January. A total of 33 hostages should be handed over before the first phase ends on 2 March.

About a million residents of northern Gaza fled to southern areas at the start of the war in October 2023, when the Israeli military issued mass evacuation orders before launching a ground invasion of the Palestinian territory.

Many of those displaced were subsequently forced to move multiple times after Israeli forces pushed into southern Gaza that December and ordered further evacuations.

They were also prevented from returning to their homes through the Netzarim corridor, a closed military zone stretching from the Gaza-Israel border to the Mediterranean Sea.

Israeli forces have withdrawn partially from the west of the corridor over the past eight days in line with the ceasefire deal with Hamas, but it was only on Monday that they allowed displaced Palestinians to pass through it.

Pedestrians are being allowed walk along the coastal Rashid Street without inspection. But vehicles must use Salah al-Din Street and undergo screening for weapons where it crosses the corridor.

A Palestinian security official told the BBC that the screening process was going very slowly for the vehicles queuing on Monday morning, many of which were piled high with possessions.

US and Egyptian security contractors were at the inspection area along with teams from the Red Cross, while Israeli forces were monitoring the process from a short distance, they said.

The vehicles were required to wait at a Hamas-run Palestinian police checkpoint about 300m (984ft) away from the area, the official added.

Permission was then granted for 20 vehicles at a time to proceed and pass through the two scanners operated by the contractors – a process that they said should take 40 minutes.

As he and his family queued in their car, Mohammed al-Rifi declared that that he would be able to “get back to life” once he reached Gaza City.

“I feel like I died and now I will get back to life,” he told Reuters news agency. “The feeling is indescribable – to see my family, my people, my neighbourhood.”

“My children did not see their home, did not know their home, did not know anything. They ended up on sand,” he added. “There was no life… I want to sit on the rubble and rest.”

Last week, US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steven Witkoff said “outside overseers” would be based in the Netzarim corridor crossing points to “[make] sure people are safe, and people who are entering are not armed, and no-one has bad motivations”.

A source familiar with the planning of the operation told the BBC that a “multinational consortium” had been brought together by the ceasefire mediators to “oversee, manage and secure a critical vehicle checkpoint along Salah al-Din road, facilitating the safe return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza”.

The source said the consortium “aims to ensure orderly vehicle movement while preventing the transport of weapons northward, in line with the ceasefire terms”, and that the checkpoint would be staffed by “neutral parties with regional experience and security expertise”.

“Current participants in the consortium include Safe Reach Solutions (SRS), a strategic planning and logistics company; UG Solutions, a globally trusted provider of integrated security solutions; and an Egyptian security company, reflecting a diverse and international composition,” they added.

Last week, the Washington Post reported that the contractors’ staff would be authorised to confiscate any weapons or military materiel found, but that the vehicles carrying them and their passengers would be allowed to continue their journey.

Palestinians were “going to go through that checkpoint, and we are not going to stop them. They just can’t carry anything deemed unsafe,” an UG Solutions official was quoted as saying.

They also stressed that the staff were “simply there to man the checkpoint” and would have no military mission or ability to detain combatants.

However, they will be armed with assault rifles, sniper rifles and pistols, according to an internal UG Solutions document seen by the newspaper.