US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner revealed a “master plan” regarding the redevelopment of the Gaza Strip.
Using slides showing development plans and images showing skyscrapers and glitzy apartments titled “New Gaza,” Kushner said the Palestinian territory would become “a place that the people there can thrive, have great employment.”
“In the Middle East they build cities like this, you know for two or three million people, they build this in three years,” Kushner said. “And so stuff like this is very doable if we make it happen.”
Kushner spoke of investments of at least $25 billion (€21.3 billion) to rebuild destroyed infrastructure and public services in the devastated Palestinian territory.
“It could be a hope. It could be a destination,” he said.
The war between Israel and the Hamas militant group caused widespread devastation across the Gaza Strip. It was triggered by the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Hamas is designated as a terror organization by the US, the EU, Israel, Germany and other nations.
A ceasefire took effect last October, which has reduced the level of bombing and fighting and increased aid deliveries, but for hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza continue to live in temporary shelters at displacement camps or in bombed-out buildings.
More than 470 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza since the ceasefire began in October, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. The ministry, a part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.
Trump is chairman of the so-called Board of Peace, designed to oversee the Gaza truce and the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip after the war between Hamas and Israel. Traditional US allies, such as France and Britain, have raised doubts about the board. Countries have been asked to pay $1 billion for permanent membership, and the invitation for Putin, whose country invaded Ukraine nearly four years ago, has also sparked controversy.
Nearly a year ago, Trump floated plans to convert Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East,” a move that drew condemnation from many quarters. Trump has called the devastated Gaza Strip “great real estate.”
At the time, he also appeared somewhat vague on questions dealing with what would happen to Palestinians living there, but said it would be populated with “the world’s people … Palestinians also, Palestinians will live there. Many people will live there.”
