{"id":253333,"date":"2026-01-23T09:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T09:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/253333\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T09:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T09:49:11","slug":"with-hamas-armed-and-strip-in-ruins-kushners-vision-for-gaza-faces-major-obstacles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/253333\/","title":{"rendered":"With Hamas armed and Strip in ruins, Kushner’s vision for Gaza faces major obstacles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Modern cities with sleek high-rises, a pristine coastline that attracts tourists and a state-of-the-art port that juts into the Mediterranean.<\/p>\n

This is what Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law and Middle East adviser, says Gaza could become, according to a presentation he gave at an economic forum in Davos, Switzerland.<\/p>\n

In his 10-minute speech on Thursday, Kushner claimed it would be possible \u2014 if there\u2019s security \u2014 to quickly rebuild Gaza\u2019s cities, which are now in ruins after two years of war between Israel and the Hamas terror group.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Middle East, they build cities like this\u2026 in three years,\u201d said Kushner, who helped broker the ceasefire that came into effect in October 2025. \u201cAnd so stuff like this is very doable, if we make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

That timeline is at odds with what the United Nations and Palestinians expect will be a very long process to rehabilitate Gaza.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGet The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition
\n\t\t\tby email and never miss our top stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n

Across the territory of roughly 2 million people, former apartment blocks are hills of rubble, unexploded ordnance lurks beneath the wreckage, disease spreads because of sewage-tainted water and city streets look like dirt canyons.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tPalestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed during Israeli air and ground operations in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, January 22, 2026. (AP\/Abdel Kareem Hana)<\/p>\n

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 will be needed for de-mining.<\/p>\n

Kushner spoke as Trump and an assortment of world leaders gathered to ratify the charter of the Board of Peace, the body that will oversee the ceasefire and reconstruction process.<\/p>\n

Here are key takeaways from the presentation, and some questions raised by it:<\/p>\n

Reconstruction hinges on security<\/p>\n

Kushner said his reconstruction plan would only work if Gaza has \u201csecurity\u201d \u2014 a big \u201cif.\u201d<\/p>\n

It remains uncertain whether Hamas will disarm. Clashes have continued amid the ceasefire, with three Israel Defense Forces soldiers and hundreds of Palestinians killed.<\/p>\n

Officials from the terror group say they have the right to \u201cresist\u201d what they characterize as Israeli occupation, though they\u2019ve said they would consider \u201cfreezing\u201d their weapons as part of a process to achieve Palestinian statehood \u2014 an Israeli nonstarter for now.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tA Hamas operative stands guard as Egyptian workers accompanied by members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) use a digger as they search for the remains of hostages in the Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern part of Gaza, on December 1, 2025. (Omar Al-Qattaa \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

In the face of these challenges, the Board of Peace has been working with Israel on \u201cde-escalation,\u201d Kushner said, and is turning its attention to the disarmament of Hamas, a process that would be managed by the US-backed Palestinian committee overseeing Gaza.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s far from certain that Hamas will yield to the committee, which goes by the acronym NCAG and, under Trump\u2019s plan for Gaza, may eventually hand over control of Gaza to a reformed Palestinian Authority. Hamas says it will dissolve the government to make way, but has previously rejected disarmament and been vague about what will happen to its forces or weapons. Hamas violently seized control of Gaza in 2007 from the Palestinian Authority.<\/p>\n

Another factor that could complicate disarmament: the existence of competing armed groups in Gaza, which Kushner\u2019s presentation said would either be dismantled or \u201cintegrated into NCAG.\u201d During the war, Israel has supported some anti-Hamas armed groups in Gaza, reportedly including the Abu Shabab militia, in what it says is a move to counter the terror group.<\/p>\n

Without security, Kushner said, there would be no way to draw investors to Gaza or stimulate job growth. The latest joint estimate from the UN, the European Union and the World Bank is that rebuilding Gaza will cost $70 billion.<\/p>\n

Reconstruction would not begin in areas that are not fully disarmed, one of Kushner\u2019s slides said.<\/p>\n

Plan avoids mention of what Palestinians will do in meantime<\/p>\n

When unveiling his plan for Gaza\u2019s reconstruction, Kushner did not say how de-mining would be handled or where Gaza\u2019s residents would live as their areas are being rebuilt. At the moment, most families are sheltering on a stretch of land that includes parts of Gaza City and most of Gaza\u2019s coastline.<\/p>\n

In Kushner\u2019s vision of a future Gaza, there would be new roads and a new airport \u2014 the old one was destroyed by Israel more than 20 years ago, amid the Second Intifada \u2014 plus a new port, and an area along the coastline designated for \u201ctourism\u201d that is currently where most Palestinians live.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tPalestinians collect plastic and paper to burn for cooking and warmth, at a landfill in Khan Younis, Gaza, January 22, 2026. (AP\/Jehad Alshrafi)<\/p>\n

The plan calls for eight \u201cresidential areas\u201d interspersed with parks, agricultural land and sports facilities.<\/p>\n

Also highlighted by Kushner were areas for \u201cadvanced manufacturing,\u201d \u201cdata centers,\u201d and an \u201cindustrial complex,\u201d though it is not yet clear what industries they would support.<\/p>\n

Kushner said construction would first focus on building \u201cworkforce housing\u201d in Rafah, the southern Gaza city that was devastated during the war and is currently controlled by Israeli troops. He said rubble-clearing and demolition were already underway there.<\/p>\n

The United Nations says unexploded shells and missiles are everywhere in Gaza, posing a threat to people searching through rubble to find their relatives, belongings, and kindling.<\/p>\n

Rights groups say rubble clearance and de-mining activities have not begun in earnest in the zone where most Palestinians live because Israel has prevented the entry of heavy machinery, citing its potential for \u201cdual use\u201d (civilian and military purposes).<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tA Palestinian child fills a water container from a hose pipe, as a toddler runs over with empty containers from a family tent shelter, set up with hundreds of other shelters, in Gaza City on January 11, 2026. (Omar Al-Qattaa \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

After Rafah will come the reconstruction of Gaza City, Kushner said, or \u201cNew Gaza,\u201d as his slide calls it. The new city could be a place where people will \u201chave great employment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Will Israel agree?<\/p>\n

Nomi Bar-Yaacov, an international lawyer and expert in conflict resolution, described the board\u2019s initial concept for redeveloping Gaza as \u201ctotally unrealistic\u201d and an indication that Trump views it from a real estate developer\u2019s perspective, not a peacemaker\u2019s.<\/p>\n

A project with so many high-rise buildings would never be acceptable to Israel because each would provide a clear view of its military bases near the border, said Bar-Yaacov, who is an associate fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, Kushner\u2019s presentation said the NCAG would eventually hand off oversight of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority after it makes reforms.<\/p>\n

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has adamantly opposed any proposal for postwar Gaza that involves the Palestinian Authority. And even in the West Bank, where it governs Palestinian population centers, the Palestinian Authority is widely unpopular because of corruption and perceived collaboration with Israel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Modern cities with sleek high-rises, a pristine coastline that attracts tourists and a state-of-the-art port that juts into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-253333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}