Glittering towers line the Mediterranean coastline, New Gaza and New Rafah offshore, more than 100,000 homes lined with neat industrial parks, and even a new airport.
There is no consultation with the people who are supposed to benefit from this development.
This is the outline of a “master plan” for post-war Gaza announced by Jared Kushner, a real estate developer and son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week.
“There is no Plan B,” Mr. Kushner said, unveiling his ambitious plans.
Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has killed more than 71,000 Palestinians in Gaza, with thousands more missing and estimated to have died under the rubble since October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked villages and military outposts in southern Israel and Israel began shelling. More than 470 Palestinians have been killed since President Trump announced a ceasefire on October 10 last year.
But the Trump administration’s proposal this week, presented as a plan to rebuild the Palestinian territories, offers no insight into core issues such as property and land rights, let alone justice for war crimes, amid plans to build gleaming buildings atop an estimated 68 million tons of rubble and war debris, where thousands of bodies remain buried.
President Trump praised the redevelopment plan and insisted the war in Gaza was “really nearing an end” despite Israeli forces killing at least 11 Palestinians, including two children and three journalists, in separate attacks in the strip on Thursday.
Regarding the development plan, President Trump said, “I’m a real estate agent at heart, and the important thing is location.” “And I said, look at this coastal place, look at this beautiful land, what this is going to be like for so many people.”
Experts have strongly criticized the “imperialist” vision of President Trump’s so-called master plan, saying it includes no consultation with the Palestinians and reduces the ongoing devastating genocide to an “investment opportunity.”
Palestinian-American writer Susan Abulhawa wrote in a post for the X that President Trump’s proposal reeks of “imperial planning for Gaza.” “It is a plan to erase Gaza’s indigenous character, turn its remaining people into cheap labor to manage an ‘industrial zone’, and create a coastline dedicated to ‘tourism’.”
During more than two years of shelling of Gaza since October 2023, Israel, which has received diplomatic support and arms from the United States, has destroyed or damaged more than 80 percent of buildings in the Gaza Strip, and residential blocks have been completely flattened.
All major hospitals and universities were destroyed, as well as most of the Strip’s electricity and water systems, roads, and public services.
Nearly all of the territory’s 2.3 million residents have been forced to evacuate, many in multiple evacuees. People face hours-long queues for basic food and water, and aid to the area is restricted by Israel, which controls all access.
So, what is included in the Gaza reconstruction plan that is part of President Trump’s establishment of the Peace Commission? Will it be possible, and at what cost, especially to the people of Gaza?
What is a peace committee?
On Thursday, President Trump formally announced the Charter of the Peace Council at Davos. President Trump proposed this as the next step in his administration’s 20-point peace plan, proposing a mechanism to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction. The term of office for members of the Board of Directors is three years. Those seeking permanent membership must pay $1 billion.
But the Peace Council’s 11-page charter makes no mention of Gaza, which appears to have morphed into something more ambitious, a forum for international conflicts and a potential rival to the United Nations.
Previous members of the board have included former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Kushner, with Trump himself serving as chairman with veto power. This includes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, despite a warrant for his arrest from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for war crimes in Gaza.
Leaders of at least 50 countries, including U.S. adversaries China and Russia, have acknowledged being invited, and several have agreed to participate. But on Thursday, President Trump withdrew Canada’s invitation in what appeared to be retaliation for Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum, in which he criticized Trump’s aggressive stance on Greenland.
At the forum, President Trump said the board would be “very successful in Gaza” and that “if we’re successful in Gaza, we can expand into other areas.”
Kushner then outlined the details of the council’s development plan for Gaza, without mentioning any plans for a path to Palestinian statehood.
Hamas, which currently rules Gaza, condemned the proposal, saying: “Our people in the Gaza Strip will not allow such a plan to pass.”
What does the Gaza plan include?
President Trump’s development plan includes projections of raising Gaza’s gross domestic product to $10 billion by 2035, after the war saw the economy drop to just $362 million by 2024. 500,000 new jobs. And at least $25 billion will be invested in modern public works and services.
Kushner did not say who would fund the redevelopment. “As you all know, peace is a different agreement than a business agreement, because you are thinking differently,” he said, calling the Gaza peace effort “very entrepreneurial.”
But he also focused on security. “The most important thing is security,” Kushner said. “If there’s no safety, no one’s going to invest there, no one’s going to come build there. We need investment to provide jobs,” Kusher said.
He added that the United States is “working very closely with Israel to find ways to de-escalate tensions, and the next step is working with Hamas on demilitarization.”
There is no evidence that Palestinians or their leaders were consulted regarding these plans. Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza, said that Palestinian civil society and public institutions were not included in the peace committee discussions.
“As Palestinian actors on the ground, we were surprised that after 10 years of activity, especially the last two years in Gaza, no one consulted us about plans for Gaza and its future,” he said.
“While these leaders are holding ceremonies, Israel is using this period to continue its actions in Gaza.”
Highlights of President Trump’s redevelopment plan include:
Four stages of development
In announcing the plan in Davos, Mr. Kushner laid out a four-phase development schedule starting in Rafah in southern Gaza and moving north, showing color-coded maps showing coastal tourist zones, mixed-use towers, and residential and industrial areas.
The first phase of President Trump’s reconstruction plan is scheduled to begin in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah and parts of Khan Yunis. The second phase will include other areas in Khan Yunis, while the third phase will aim to develop refugee camps in central Gaza. The fourth phase will target Gaza City, located in the northern part of the territory.
Kushner told Davos attendees that construction of new developments in all of these areas will take two to three years. However, he did not provide details such as where Palestinians would live during reconstruction or how new real estate would be allocated.
coastal tourism plan
In a map showing the Gaza plan, the Trump administration has painted nearly the entire coastline pink and marked it as a “coastal tourism” zone that includes as many as 180 skyscrapers.
The proposal also shows a port in Gaza’s southwestern tip along the border with Egypt and a nearby airport construction area several miles from the site of the original Gaza airport, which was destroyed in an Israeli attack two decades ago.
employment and investment
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said in a report released in October 2025 that unemployment in the Gaza Strip increased by 80% during the war, with more than 550,000 people now out of work.
GDP in 2024 decreased by 83% from the previous year, and decreased by 87% over two years to $362 million. GDP per capita plummeted to $161 per year, the lowest in the world.
“Before the war, the Gaza Strip experienced economic growth with the opening of many commercial, tourism and industrial projects and became a haven for many investments in all sectors,” Maher Altabaa, director-general of the Gaza Governorate Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told Al Jazeera early last month.
Mr. Kushner’s proposal would invest $1.5 billion in an initiative called “Technical Colleges and (Re)Training for the Full Workforce,” which would create more than 500,000 jobs in construction, agriculture, manufacturing, and services.
He added that the council aims to use “free market principles” to shift Gaza’s dependence on foreign aid, and unveiled plans in its proposal for a new “logistics corridor,” a new “trilateral” crossing in Rafah, and a road connecting Gaza’s urban centres. The plan appears to suggest that a new crossing would be built at the intersection of Gaza, Israel and Egypt’s Sinai region.
Meanwhile, the main existing Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt is scheduled to open in both directions next week.
“New Rafah”, “New Gaza”
Kushner presented a slide showing an artificial intelligence-generated image titled “New Rafah” showing plans to build more than 100,000 permanent housing units in the southern city of Gaza.
Around 200 schools and more than 75 health facilities will be built, he claimed.
Another slide titled “New Gaza” showed plans to turn the enclave into an industrial hub centered on data centers and other digital infrastructure.
What did Mr. Kusher say about demilitarization?
Kushner said the reconstruction plan would only begin after the complete disarmament of Hamas and the subsequent withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Israel supported several armed groups and gangs in Gaza during the war, which Kushner said would be dismantled or “merged” into the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG). NCAG is an organization of 15 Palestinian technocrats tasked with the day-to-day running of the territory.
According to the plan, all Hamas heavy weapons would be phased out immediately, and remaining small arms would be phased out by the new Palestinian police force. Hamas has not committed to disarmament, but there are concerns that this would eliminate any small possibility that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip could mount armed resistance against a future Israeli attack.
Kushner’s Davos slide said Hamas members who cooperated and disarmed would be “granted amnesty and reintegration or safe passage,” and that some would undergo “rigorous vetting” and be “integrated” into the new Palestinian police force.
Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas called for the full implementation of the peace plan, which includes the withdrawal of Israeli troops and a central role for the Palestinian Authority in governing Gaza.
