Future plans for the Gaza Strip currently circulating among United States government officials call for for the relocation of the entire population to make way for construction of tourist resorts and tech industry hubs under a decade of US administrative control, according to a Washington Post exclusive published [13] Aug. 31. The 38-page document obtained by the newspaper includes full-color artist renderings of the envisioned "Riviera of the Middle East." The prospectus, yet to be officially approved, would see the US take the Strip under trusteeship for at least 10 years, overseeing "voluntary departures" of the residents to third countries or into "restricted" zones within the territory. A "Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration & Transformation Trust" (GREAT Trust) would be established to coordinate the effort.
As part of the displacement framework, the Trust would provide Palestinian households with a "digital token" in exchange for the rights to redevelop their properties. The token could be used to finance a new life elsewhere or later be exchanged for an apartment in one of six to eight "AI-powered smart cities" to be built in the Strip. Every Palestinian "choosing to leave" would be entitled to a cash payment of $5,000, in addition to subsidies covering four years of rent abroad and a year of food.
The plan estimates that every person leaving Gaza would save the trust $23,000, compared with the cost of temporary housing and "life support" services that would have to be provided in secured zones for Palestinians remaining in the Strip.
Israel is already [16]intending to forcibly displace around 800,000 people from Gaza City to a closed "humanitarian zone [17]" in the Strip's south, where the entirety of Rafah governorate is already under Israeli military control.
The proposal was developed by some of the same Israelis who created the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF [18]), the entity whose operations have facilitated [19] the near-daily massacres [20] by the Israeli military and private security contractors [21].
The plan builds on earlier templates to impose commercial development on Gaza that would stipulate the removal of the 2 million Palestinians for whom the Strip is home. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner [22], the real estate developer who was the architect of the Abraham Accords [23] as his first-term Middle East envoy, has previously voiced his ambitions for the "very valuable potential [24]" of Gaza's "waterfront property [25], drawing comparisons to Hong Kong and Rio de Janeiro.
Kushner also suggested [25] last year that Israel "bulldoze something in the Negev" to make room for evacuees from the Gaza Strip, allowing the Israeli military to "clean it up."
Trump began speaking of a US takeover [26] of Gaza shortly [27] after assuming office in January. He later posted online an AI-generated video [28] depicting a rebranded Gaza in the model of a Trump beach resort. (Mada Masr [14])
This report comes as Israel is preparing a re-occupation [29] of the Gaza Strip. The Trump plan weds Israeli ambitions for annexation and transfer [30] of the Occupied Palestinian Territories with the futuristic "techno-cities" being pioneered in the Gulf States [31].
