Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid proposed on Tuesday that Egypt take over the administration of the neighboring Palestinian Gaza Strip for 15 years, in exchange for canceling its foreign debts.

Until 17:30 (GMT), Cairo, the Palestinian Authority, and the Palestinian factions have not commented on Lapid's proposal, which comes after his country waged a genocidal war against the Palestinians in Gaza.

Lapid announced his proposal in a speech he gave at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) think tank in Washington, according to the Hebrew newspaper Maariv, and then followed it up with a post on the X platform.

"A short time ago in Washington I presented a plan for the day after the war in Gaza," Lapid wrote.

He added: "At the core of the plan: Egypt will take responsibility for Gaza for 15 years, and at the same time the international community will cancel its foreign debts amounting to $155 billion."

He continued: "After about a year and a half of fighting, the world was surprised that Hamas still controls Gaza. No one in the current Israeli government has offered a realistic alternative."

With American support, Israel committed genocide in Gaza between October 7, 2023 and January 19, 2025, leaving more than 160,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 14,000 missing.

Lapid added: "For political and religious reasons (...) the government (of Israel, led by Benjamin) Netanyahu failed to take steps to establish an effective government in Gaza capable of expelling Hamas."

He said that on Israel's southern border with Gaza, "there are two major problems that threaten the security of Israel and the entire region."

He considered that "the first problem is that the world needs a new solution for Gaza: Israel cannot accept Hamas remaining in power, the Palestinian Authority is unable to manage Gaza, the Israeli occupation is undesirable, and the continuation of chaos poses a serious security threat to Israel."

He claimed that "the second problem is that the Egyptian economy is on the verge of collapse and threatens the stability of Egypt and the entire Middle East. The external debt of $155 billion does not allow Egypt to rebuild its economy and strengthen its army," he said.

He added: "Accordingly, we propose one solution to these two problems: that Egypt assumes responsibility for managing the Gaza Strip for 15 years, while at the same time the international community and its regional allies cover the external debts."

Israel has turned Gaza into the largest prison in the world, as it has been besieging it for the 18th year, and about 1.5 million of its citizens, who number about 2.4 million Palestinians, have become refugees after the war of extermination destroyed their homes.

Lapid added that during the 15 years, "Gaza will be rebuilt and conditions will be prepared for self-rule, and Egypt will be the central player and will supervise the reconstruction, which will further strengthen its economy."

He believed that "this solution has a historical precedent: Egypt took control of Gaza in the past, and this was done with the support of the Arab League, with the understanding that this was a temporary situation (...) and this is what must happen again today."

Egypt was legally responsible for the Gaza Strip for most of the period between 1948 and 1967. This began when Israel was established on Palestinian lands occupied by armed Zionist gangs that committed massacres and displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

Hamas had previously announced its rejection of disarming the resistance or removing it from Gaza, stressing that any arrangements for the future of the Strip would be based on Palestinian "national consensus."

On January 19, a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement between Hamas and Israel went into effect. It includes three stages, each lasting 42 days, with the condition that the next stage be negotiated before the end of the current stage.

Israel has occupied lands in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon for decades, and refuses to withdraw from them and establish an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, on the borders before the 1967 war.