Glittering towers lining the Mediterranean shoreline, a “New Gaza” and “New Rafah” within the offing, with greater than 100,000 housing items alongside orderly industrial parks – and even a brand new airport.
All with out session with the individuals this growth is meant to profit.
That is the skeleton of a “masterplan” for post-war Gaza, introduced by Jared Kushner, United States President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and an actual property developer, on the World Financial Discussion board in Davos, Switzerland this week.
“There isn’t a Plan B,” mentioned Kushner, as he unveiled the formidable plan.
Israel’s genocidal struggle on Gaza has killed greater than 71,000 Palestinians – with 1000’s extra lacking and presumed lifeless below the rubble – in Gaza since October 7, 2023, the day Hamas launched an assault on villages and armed forces outposts in southern Israel and Israel started its bombardment. Greater than 470 Palestinians have been killed since a ceasefire was introduced by Trump on October 10 final yr.
Introduced as a plan to rebuild the Palestinian territory, the Trump administration’s proposal this week, nonetheless, affords no perception into core points reminiscent of property and land rights — not to mention justice for struggle crimes — amid plans to assemble shimmering buildings atop an estimated 68 million tonnes of rubble and struggle particles, the place 1000’s of our bodies stay buried.
Praising the redevelopment plan, Trump, who additionally spoke at size on the discussion board in Davos, argued that the struggle in Gaza “was actually coming to an finish”, whilst Israeli forces killed no less than 11 Palestinians, together with two kids and three journalists, in separate strikes on the Gaza Strip on Thursday.
“I’m an actual property individual at coronary heart, and it’s all about location,” Trump mentioned in regards to the growth plan. “And I mentioned, take a look at this location on the ocean, take a look at this lovely piece of property, what it may very well be for therefore many individuals.”
Consultants have strongly criticised the “imperialist” imaginative and prescient of Trump’s so-called grasp plan, which they are saying doesn’t embody any session with Palestinians and reduces the continued catastrophic genocide to an “funding alternative”.
Trump’s proposal reeks of “imperial plans for Gaza,” Palestinian-American author Susan Abulhawa wrote in a submit on X. “It is a plan to erase Gaza’s indigenous character, flip what stays of her individuals into an affordable labor drive to handle their ‘industrial zones’ and create an unique shoreline for ‘tourism’.”
Throughout greater than two years of bombardment on Gaza from October 2023, Israel, which is diplomatically supported and armed by the US, destroyed or broken greater than 80 p.c of the Strip’s buildings, with residential blocks fully flattened.
All main hospitals and universities, and many of the Strip’s electrical energy and water methods, roads and municipal companies have been destroyed.
Almost all of the territory’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced, lots of them a number of occasions. Individuals face hours-long queues for fundamental meals and water, and support into the territory has been restricted by Israel, which controls every thing that goes out and in.
So, what’s within the Gaza reconstruction plan, a part of Trump’s launch of a “Board of Peace”; might or not it’s realised — and at what value, particularly for the individuals of Gaza?
What’s the Board of Peace?
In Davos on Thursday, Trump formally introduced the constitution for his “Board of Peace”, which he has pitched as the subsequent part of his administration’s 20-point peace plan and a mechanism to supervise the reconstruction of Gaza. Membership on the board has a three-year cycle. These searching for a everlasting seat should pay $1bn.
However the 11-page constitution for the Board of Peace doesn’t point out Gaza and seems to have morphed into one thing much more formidable – a world disputes discussion board and a possible rival to the United Nations.
The manager board to date consists of former United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Kushner, with Trump because the chairman himself with veto energy. It additionally consists of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, though he faces an arrest warrant from the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ) for struggle crimes in Gaza.
At the very least 50 international locations’ leaders have confirmed that they’ve obtained invites, together with US adversaries China and Russia — and several have agreed to join. Nevertheless, Trump withdrew Canada’s invitation on Thursday, in what gave the impression to be a retaliatory transfer following Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech on the World Financial Discussion board, during which he denounced Trump’s aggressive stance over Greenland.
Talking on the discussion board, Trump mentioned the board was going to be “very profitable in Gaza” and “we will unfold out to different issues as we succeed with Gaza”.
Kushner then outlined particulars in regards to the board’s growth plans for Gaza with out mentioning plans for a path to Palestinian statehood.
Hamas, which presently governs Gaza, condemned the proposal, saying: “Our individuals within the Gaza Strip is not going to permit these plans to go.”
What’s within the Gaza plan?
Trump’s growth plan consists of projections to lift Gaza’s gross home product (GDP) to $10bn by 2035, after the dimensions of the territory’s economic system crashed to only $362m by 2024 amid the struggle; 500,000 new jobs; and no less than $25bn in funding for contemporary utilities and public companies.
Kushner didn’t specify who would fund the redevelopment. “As you guys know, peace is a distinct deal than a enterprise deal, since you’re altering a mindset,” he mentioned, calling the Gaza peace efforts “very entrepreneurial”.
Nevertheless, he additionally targeted on safety. “[The] primary factor goes to be safety,” Kushner mentioned. “With out safety, no one’s going to make investments, no one’s gonna come construct there. We’d like investments with a purpose to begin giving jobs,” Kusher mentioned.
He added that the US is working “very carefully with the Israelis to determine a option to de-escalation, and the subsequent part is working with Hamas on demilitarisation”.
There isn’t a proof that Palestinians or their management have been consulted over any of those plans. Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGOs Community in Gaza, mentioned Palestinian civil society and official our bodies weren’t included in discussions with the Board of Peace.
“We have been stunned, as Palestinian actors on the bottom, after 10 years of labor, and particularly the final two years of labor in Gaza, that nobody consulted us in regards to the plans for Gaza and its future,” he mentioned.
“On the time these leaders are holding ceremonies, Israel is utilizing this era to proceed its actions in Gaza.”
Listed here are among the highlights of Trump’s redevelopment plan:
4 phases of growth
Presenting a four-phase growth timeline starting in Rafah, southern Gaza, after which transferring its method north, Kushner displayed colour-coded maps displaying coastal tourism zones, mixed-use towers, and residential and industrial areas, as he unveiled the plan in Davos.
Part one in all Trump’s plan for rebuilding is ready to begin in Rafah, Gaza’s southern-most metropolis, and a few elements of Khan Younis. Part two will embody different elements of Khan Younis, whereas part three goals to develop refugee camps in central Gaza. Part 4 will cowl Gaza Metropolis, which is within the north of the territory.
Kushner informed attendees at Davos that building of latest developments in all these areas will take two to a few years. Nevertheless, he didn’t present particulars about the place Palestinians would reside throughout reconstruction, and the way new properties can be allotted.
Coastal tourism plans
In maps displaying the Gaza plan, Trump’s administration has pink-coloured almost all the seafront and marked it as a “coastal tourism” zone that can embody as many as 180 skyscrapers.
The proposal additionally exhibits a port on the southwestern finish of Gaza, alongside the border with Egypt, and an space zoned for an airport shut by, a number of miles from the positioning of the unique Gaza airport, which was destroyed in Israeli assaults 20 years in the past.
Employment and funding
In a report revealed in October 2025, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics mentioned unemployment in Gaza rose by 80 p.c through the struggle, with greater than 550,000 individuals presently with out jobs.
GDP plunged 83 p.c in 2024 in contrast with the earlier yr, and by 87 p.c over two years to $362m. GDP per capita plummeted to $161 yearly, inserting it among the many lowest on the earth.
“Earlier than the struggle, the Gaza Strip witnessed financial progress, with the opening of many business, tourism, and industrial initiatives, and it turned a haven for a lot of investments in all sectors,” Maher Altabbaa, the director-general of the Gaza Governorate Chamber of Commerce and Business, informed Al Jazeera earlier final month.
The proposal introduced by Kushner claims greater than 500,000 jobs in building, agriculture, manufacturing and companies can be created, with a $1.5bn funding in an initiative known as “Vocational Colleges and (Re)-Coaching for Full Labor Pressure”.
He added that the board goals to make use of “free market ideas” to shift Gaza’s dependence on overseas support, and unveiled plans for a brand new “logistics hall”, a brand new “trilateral” crossing at Rafah, and roads connecting Gaza’s city centres within the proposal. The plan appears to recommend the brand new crossing can be constructed on the level the place Gaza, Israel and Egypt’s Sinai area meet.
The primary, present Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, in the meantime, is anticipated to open in each instructions subsequent week.
‘New Rafah’, ‘New Gaza’
Kushner introduced a slide displaying synthetic intelligence-generated photographs titled “New Rafah”, which confirmed plans to construct greater than 100,000 everlasting housing items in Gaza’s southern metropolis.
About 200 faculties and greater than 75 medical services can be constructed, he claimed.
One other slide, titled “New Gaza”, confirmed plans to show the enclave right into a centre of business, heavy on knowledge centres and different digital infrastructure.
What did Kusher say about demilitarisation?
Kushner mentioned the reconstruction plan would solely begin following full disarmament by Hamas and the withdrawal of the Israeli navy after that.
Israel backed a number of armed teams and gangs in Gaza through the struggle, and Kushner mentioned these would both be dismantled or “built-in into” the Nationwide Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) — a physique of 15 Palestinian technocrats tasked with the day-to-day operating of the territory.
All of Hamas’s heavy weapons are to be decommissioned instantly, and the remaining smaller arms can be decommissioned step by step by a brand new Palestinian police drive, below the plan. Hamas, on its half, has not dedicated to disarming – amid worries that this might eradicate what little armed resistance Palestinians in Gaza would possibly be capable of provide to future Israeli assaults.
Throughout the presentation in Davos, Kushner’s slide presentation mentioned that Hamas members who cooperate and disarm can be “rewarded with amnesty and reintegration, or protected passage”, and a few can be “built-in” into the brand new Palestinian police drive after “rigorous vetting”.
Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), has known as for the complete implementation of the peace plan, together with the withdrawal of Israeli forces and a central position for the PA in administering Gaza.
