President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner this week unveiled plans for a “New Gaza” filled with gleaming high-rise towers and tourist-packed beaches — an optimistic vision that stands in stark contrast to the reality of a territory in ruins after two years of war.
Kushner, who has played a key role in negotiations over Gaza and has been named to the executive board of Trump’s Board of Peace, told the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday that much of the initial work to rebuild Gaza could be done in two to three years.
“We’ve already started removing the rubble and doing some of the demolition,” said Kushner, smiling as he showed slides filled with concept images of futuristic towers.
A map showed zones for coastal tourism, residential areas, data centers and advanced manufacturing.
On the ground in Gaza, meanwhile, Kushner’s plan felt like another world. Israeli forces continue to occupy around half of the Palestinian enclave.
More than 71,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, and hundreds of thousands of the enclave’s 2 million people have been driven from their homes and live in tents, where they are exposed to disease, storms and flooding.
More than two years after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terrorist attacks in which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 were kidnapped, the entry of construction materials into the territory is still being restricted.
Israel continues to launch airstrikes against what it says are Hamas targets, as each side regularly accuses the other of violations. Trump’s plan for peace stipulates the disarmament of Hamas and Israel’s eventual withdrawal; there are few signs of either becoming a reality.
Ghassan Al-Tanani, who lost his brother in an Israeli strike this week, said: “I want to understand where this so-called World Peace Council in Gaza is?” He added: “Where is it? We’ve been looking for it and we can’t find it.”
Others voiced fears that future plans would end up with Israel in control.
“I am one of the 95% of us who are not convinced,” said displaced Palestinian Ghassan Qudeeh. “Peace conference and whatnot, in the end it is Israeli control.”
'No Plan B'
Kushner was optimistic on Thursday, saying “there is no Plan B” beyond his vision and telling world leaders in Davos he wants “New Gaza” to be “a hope, a destination, have a lot of industry, and really be a place where the people there can thrive and have great employment.”
“We think this really gives the Gazan people an opportunity to live their aspirations,” Kushner said, with one slide suggesting that Gaza could have an estimated GDP of “$10bn+” by 2035.
The United Nations Office for Project Services says Gaza has more than 60 million tons of rubble, enough to fill nearly 3,000 container ships. That will take over seven years to clear, they say, and then additional time is needed for demining.
White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly derided the U.N.’s estimate, saying it was “laughable.”
“Their ‘estimates’ are just as useless as their broken escalator,” she said, referring to an escalator malfunction when Trump visited the organization’s headquarters in September.
There is also some skepticism about whether Israel would agree to Kushner’s plan, which appears to include the construction of a new port and airport after a yearslong blockade.
Israeli officials did not respond to questions about their views on the plan, and how they may work alongside the military reality on the ground.
A project with so many high-rise buildings would never be acceptable to Israel if they provided a clear view of its military bases near the border, said Nomi Bar-Yaacov, an associate fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.
“No one cares what the U.N. so-called experts and think tank armchair quarterbacks think,” Kelly said of the security concerns.
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for Israel to “establish a military government” in Gaza and allow its settlement by Israelis.
There are no Palestinians named on the Board of Peace’s Gaza executive board, though Kushner praised the work of Ali Shaath, a Palestinian former planning minister who has been placed in charge of the separate technocratic body intended to control day-to-day affairs in Gaza.
Kushner, whose family runs a real estate firm, credited work on the plan to Yakir Gabay, a Cypriot-Israeli real estate magnate with holdings across Europe, who has been named to the Gaza executive board.
