This staggering degree of destruction raises pressing questions on how, and by way of whom, Gaza must be rebuilt. Since 2023, a lot of reconstruction plans and different projects have attempted to consider what Gaza may seem like when the struggle ends for just right. However which of those visions will form Gaza’s long run?
The Israeli executive’s Gaza 2035 plan, which used to be unveiled in 2024, lays out a three-stage programme to combine the Gaza Strip right into a free-trade zone with Egypt’s El-Arish Port and the Israeli town of Sderot.
AI renderings display futuristic skyscrapers, sun farms and water desalination crops within the Sinai peninsula. The plan additionally presentations offshore oil rigs and a brand new high-speed rail hall alongside Salah al-Din Street, Gaza’s primary freeway that connects Gaza Town and Rafah.
America executive has proposed a an identical futuristic imaginative and prescient for Gaza. Its August 2025 Gaza Reconstitution, Financial Acceleration and Transformation Accept as true with plan presentations a phased collection of recent, AI-powered good towns evolved over a ten-year time period. The plan, which might position Gaza underneath a US-run trusteeship, recommended that deficient city design lies on the center of “Gaza’s ongoing insurgency”.
Jared Kushner presenting the ‘Gaza Riviera’ Venture at Global Financial Discussion board in Davos, January 2026.
The most recent iteration of this imaginative and prescient used to be unveiled by way of Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, on the fresh Global Financial Discussion board in Davos.
He introduced slides appearing Gaza reconstructed as a “Riviera” of the Heart East, with luxurious beachfront lodges, gleaming tower blocks, residential zones and trendy shipping hubs. Kushner recommended it used to be “doable” to finish the development of a “new” Rafah town in “two to three years”.
It’s been reported that the USA and Israeli visions are closely influenced by way of US-based economics professor Joseph Pelzman’s financial plan for Gaza. This plan, Pelzman stated on a podcast in 2024, would contain destroying Gaza and restarting from scratch.
Against this to the USA and Israeli visions, the February 2025 Gaza “Phoenix” plan contains enter from the folk of Gaza. It has a far more potent center of attention on keeping up and reconstructing the prevailing structures, tradition and social material of the enclave.
The plan used to be evolved by way of a consortium of global mavens at the side of execs and teachers from Gaza, the West Financial institution and the Palestinian diaspora, and suggests a reconstruction and construction section of no less than 5 years.
Different plans from the Arab international take a extra technocratic view of reconstruction, however nonetheless have a brief timescale for reconstruction. Those come with a five-year plan by way of the United Arab Emirates-based Al Habtoor Team, which guarantees to grant 70% of possession within the protecting corporate that can arrange Gaza’s reconstruction to the Palestinians.
Feasibility of rebuilding Gaza
So, how possible are those other visions and the way inclusive are they for the folk of Gaza? Rebuilding towns after battle takes money and time, and likewise calls for native sources. Even in China, a rustic with abundant sources and considerable professional labour, main new towns are infrequently finished in lower than twenty years.
And in Gaza rebuilding will probably be difficult by way of the truth that there are actually 61 million tonnes of rubble there, in addition to different hazardous particles comparable to unexploded munitions and human stays. This may occasionally wish to be got rid of prior to any reconstruction can start, with the UN estimating that clearing the rubble by myself may take so long as twenty years.
For comparability, the Polish capital of Warsaw skilled a an identical degree of destruction right through the second one international battle and it took 4 a long time to rebuild and reconstruct the town’s historical centre. The time frames for reconstruction defined in the entire plans for Gaza are a ways shorter than this and, even with trendy building strategies, are not likely to be possible.
America and Israeli visions additionally fail to incorporate Palestinians within the making plans of Gaza’s long run, overlooking any wish to visit Gazan citizens and neighborhood teams. This has led critics to argue that the plans quantity to “urbicide”, the obliteration of current cultures thru battle and reconstruction.
Stories that recommend Gazan citizens will probably be introduced money bills of US$5,000 (£3,650) to depart Gaza “voluntarily” underneath the USA plan, in addition to subsidies masking 4 years of hire outdoor Gaza, won’t have alleviated those issues.
America and Israeli visions fail to incorporate Palestinians within the making plans of Gaza’s long run.
Mohammed Saber / EPA
On the similar time, the USA plan does no longer suggest a standard land reimbursement programme for Gazan citizens who misplaced their properties and companies right through the battle. Those folks will as an alternative be introduced virtual tokens in trade for the rights to redevelop their land.
The tokens may sooner or later be redeemed for an condo in certainly one of Gaza’s new towns. However the plan additionally envisages the sale of tokens to buyers getting used to fund reconstruction. The Council on American-Islamic Members of the family, the most important Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation in the USA, says the “mass theft” of Palestinian land during the token scheme would quantity to a battle crime.
With their emphasis on neighborhood engagement and the restore and renewal of current constructions, the Phoenix plan and the opposite Arab-led visions are no less than a step ahead. However with out a completely democratic consensus on how one can rebuild Gaza, it’s tricky to look how the voices of the Gazan folks may also be heard.
Whichever imaginative and prescient wins out, historical past presentations that post-war reconstruction succeeds when it comes to the ones whose lives had been destroyed. That is evidenced fairly satirically by way of the USA Marshall Plan, which funded the reconstruction of many Ecu economies and towns after the second one international battle, and concerned shut engagement with civil society and native communities to reach good fortune.
