US would control Gaza, displace all its people under new plan: report

WASHINGTON (AFP): The entire population of Gaza would be relocated and the United States would take control of the Palestinian territory under a plan being considered by the Trump administration, the Washington Post reported Sunday.

The enclave reduced to rubble in Israel’s war prompted by the Hamas attack of 2023 would be transformed into a trusteeship administered by the United States for at least 10 years, the newspaper said.

Another goal of the plan modeled on President Donald Trump’s stated vision of making it the “Riviera of the Middle East” is to transform Gaza — land which the Palestinians want to be part of a future state — into a tourism resort and high tech hub, said the Post, which viewed a 38-page prospectus outlining the initiative.

It calls for at least temporary relocation of all of Gaza’s population of two million, either through “voluntary” departures to another country or into restricted, secured zones inside the enclave during reconstruction, the newspaper said.

Gaza residents who own land would be given a digital token by the trust in exchange for the right to develop their property.

Recipients can use this token to start a new life somewhere else or eventually redeem it for an apartment in one of six to eight new “AI-powered, smart cities” to be built in Gaza, according to the plan.

The Post quoted people familiar with the trust’s planning and with administration deliberations over postwar Gaza.

The State Department did not immediately reply to an AFP request for comment.

Trump stunned the world earlier this year when he suggested the United States should take control of the Gaza Strip, clear out all its people and build seaside real estate.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the proposal, which was heavily criticized by many European and Arab states.

Trump chaired a meeting last week on postwar plans for Gaza but the White House did not release a read-out afterward or announce any decisions.

The body that would administer Gaza under the plan now being considered would be called the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust, or GREAT Trust, said the Post.

The Post said the proposal was developed by some of the same Israelis who created the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distributing food inside the enclave amid much criticism from aid groups and the United Nations.

On July 22, the UN rights office said Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid in Gaza since the GHF started operations, nearly three-quarters of them in the vicinity of GHF sites.