Quds News reports that a senior Trump official has confirmed that the US administration is working on a plan to divide the Gaza Strip by constructing housing units for thousands of Palestinians in Israeli-occupied areas behind the so-called yellow line in Gaza, and not allowing them to leave those sites.
According to a Tuesday report by The New York Times, the compounds or the so-called “Alternative Safe Communities” as US officials are calling them, will be in the eastern half of Gaza, behind the yellow line which is non-physical demarcation line separating the Israeli occupation forces from certain areas of Gaza, while maintaining control over approximately 50% of the enclave.
US officials claim in these areas, there will be greater security, job opportunities and a chance to rebuild their lives. Each compound will provide housing for as many as 20,000 or 25,000 people alongside medical clinics and schools, US officials and European diplomats allege.
The report named Aryeh Lightstone, a senior Trump administration official who is leading the effort. Lightstone, an American rabbi, was also a top aide to former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and the CEO of the Abraham Accords Peace Institute, which was founded by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law. He has been identified as an advisor to Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff.
The New York Times report raised a number of complications, including whether Palestinians would be able to leave the compounds. According to officials, Palestinians should only be able to move into the compounds, not to leave them.
And if an Israeli vetting could mean that many Gazans are blacklisted from moving to them, including many public-sector workers like police officers and health workers, as well as the relatives of Hamas.
And it is not yet clear how the plan would be funded and how to address the Palestinian ownership of the land on which the compounds will be built. The Gaza Strip has a formal land registry. Officials have already begun trying to obtain the land registry from Rafah, according to one person involved.
Officials said the first compound will likely not be ready for several months. Israeli soldiers were expected this week to begin clearing the first site in Rafah, near Gaza’s borders with Egypt. The cost for that compound could run into the tens of millions of dollars, according to the report.
The rubble clearance could take months if crews discover tunnels, unexploded munitions or human remains, the article said. It would then take another six to nine weeks to erect prefabricated homes, the officials added.
The report also said the leading team operates out of two luxury beachfront hotels in Tel Aviv, the Kempinski and the Hilton, where rooms regularly run over $700 a night. Lightstone’s team also includes unnamed “Israeli magnates”.
Lightstone and his group are working on other plans for the destroyed enclave, including a Gaza cryptocurrency and an urban plan to make the enclave traffic-free, the report said.
Kushner publicly floated the idea of the US and its partners reconstructing parts of Gaza occupied by Israeli troops, while leaving the rest of the war-torn enclave destroyed.
Some details of these compounds were previously reported by The Atlantic earlier this month. At its core, the plan would require Palestinians in central Gaza to willingly accept living under territory controlled by Israeli troops. The Atlantic said that Israel’s Shin Bet would scan applicants to live in the housing units. It also said a US-based engineering and consulting firm that works with the US military, Tetra Tech Solutions, has already been awarded a State Department contract to clear unexploded ordinance and rubble from the site of the first so-called “Alternate Safe Community.”
Palestinians and critics say the plan could entrench a de facto partition of Gaza into Israeli-occupied areas and Palestinian areas.
BreakThrough News on Mar 26, 2024 published a video of Jared Kushner talking about developing Gaza’s waterfront property, then urging Israel to “finish the job”, with a response by Miko Peled, an Israeli general’s son turned Palestine activist says this chilling rhetoric echoes Hitler’s “final solution”:
Suppressed News reported in August: “Gaza Riviera” is a colonial real estate scheme aimed at forcibly displacing Palestinians and transforming Gaza into a privatized economic zone.
Over the past 21 months, plans, some linked to Donald Trump, have proposed evacuating Gaza’s residents and redeveloping the area. A Financial Times report revealed a recent Israeli-British plan, developed by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), featuring projects like a “Trump Riviera,” an “Elon Musk Smart Manufacturing Zone,” and a “Mohammed bin Salman Road,” with artificial islands and economic zones off Gaza’s coast.
The plan, titled “The Great Trust,” proposes forcibly relocating 500,000 Palestinians with $9,000 payouts and relocation subsidies. It was shared with the Trump administration and is linked to the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), which described the genocide as a “once-in-a-century opportunity” to rebuild Gaza.
TBI later removed mentions of forced displacement, but coordination reportedly continues in a 12-person group chat named “Gaza Economic Blueprint” involving BCG, TBI, and an Israeli businessman.
