The original plan promised the restoration of water, electricity, sewage networks, hospitals and bakeries across Gaza within 100 days. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, presented the programme in January as a territory-wide recovery scheme backed by international funding and a new administrative structure.
Six months later, no broad reconstruction programme has started.
The Guardian reported that the Board of Peace now plans a camp of portable cabins near Rafah, inside a buffer area along the ceasefire line. Officials involved in the talks told the newspaper that the site was unlikely to begin operating before the end of 2026.
Preparatory work has not started at the proposed camp. Satellite images reviewed by The Guardian showed disturbed ground but no new buildings. A support base for an international security force also remains unbuilt.
A logistics site at the Kerem Shalom crossing is nearing completion, while a small number of Moroccan and Kosovan officers have arrived in Israel. They are expected to form the first contingent of an International Stabilisation Force intended to protect the pilot area.
The proposed force would include about 5,000 personnel, one quarter of the original target. Morocco, Kosovo, Albania and Kazakhstan have been discussed as possible contributors.
Training has yet to begin, and Israel has not approved the legal framework for the force’s entry into Gaza.
The plan also calls for a Palestinian police unit trained in Egypt and vetted by the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza and the international force. Officials cited by The Guardian said Israel was expected to retain influence over recruitment.
The Palestinian committee consists of 13 professionals and technocrats. Israel has barred its members from entering Gaza, leaving the group based in Cairo.
Israeli approval remains absent for several parts of the scheme, including the entry of foreign troops, the deployment of Palestinian police and the movement of materials classed as having both civilian and military uses.
Those restrictions have blocked shipments of water pipes, solar panels and other items needed for recovery work.
The pilot scheme would give priority to former residents of the Rafah area. The criteria for admitting other displaced Palestinians remain unclear.
Board of Peace officials say residents would retain freedom of movement, though critics argue that Israeli control over access and security would leave the camp isolated from the rest of Gaza.
Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has compared the proposal to a detention camp. Muhammad Shehada, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told The Guardian that the project risked becoming a “caged and controlled Potemkin village”.
Shehada said a limited group would receive improved food, housing and services while most Palestinians remained in damaged areas with fewer supplies.
The Guardian reported that members of the Palestinian administrative committee were divided over the Rafah proposal. Some feared that better conditions inside the pilot area would draw large crowds towards the site and place people at risk.
The revised plan emerged from meetings in Cyprus attended by Board of Peace officials, members of the Palestinian committee and advisers from the Tony Blair Institute.
One Western diplomat told The Guardian that the aim was to keep the process alive and prevent members of Israel’s governing coalition from advancing proposals involving forced population transfer and Israeli settlement in Gaza.
“The aim is just to keep something going, keep the ball in play,” the diplomat said.
Diplomats cited by The Guardian expressed concern that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might order a wider military offensive before the vote. Such an operation would end work on the Rafah scheme and deepen the humanitarian crisis.
Israeli forces now control more than 60 per cent of Gaza, according to The Guardian. The military has also moved beyond the ceasefire line agreed in October, creating a wider buffer area.
Israeli officials have said a return to full-scale fighting remains possible because Hamas has not disarmed.
Hamas has stated that it is prepared to discuss laying down its weapons under agreed conditions. Representatives joined talks in Cairo on the transfer, storage and classification of weapons, along with the disarmament of armed groups backed by Israel.
Reports from the talks said progress remained blocked while Israeli attacks and military advances continued.
A Palestinian source told Haaretz that negotiations lacked a basis without an Israeli commitment to withdraw in stages and change conditions inside Gaza.
The “ceasefire” announced in October reduced the scale of fighting but did not end Israeli attacks.
At least 1,100 Palestinians have been killed and more than 3,500 wounded since the agreement, according to the Health Ministry. The total Palestinian death toll since the start of the genocidal war has passed 73,000.
Al Jazeera reported that Israeli attacks killed at least 17 people in Gaza today, as Israel continues to violate the ceasefire on a nearly daily basis.
The continued attacks have left much of Gaza’s housing, health system, transport network and water infrastructure damaged or destroyed.
The European Union and the United Nations estimated in April that recovery and reconstruction would require more than $71 billion over ten years. Their assessment placed the cost of the first 18 months at $26.3 billion.
The European Commission announced a funding package worth almost €900 million, about $1 billion, at a donor meeting in Brussels this week.
Finland is among the countries taking part, alongside Spain, France, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, Switzerland, Sweden and Belgium. The World Bank and the European Investment Bank are also involved, while Australia and Canada are expected to join.
The announced package covers a small portion of the amount identified by the EU and UN assessment.
The Board of Peace has also discussed using part of the $11 billion in Palestinian tax revenue and bank assets held by Israel to finance its projects.
Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister Varsen Aghabekian said the funds belonged to Palestinians and should be released without conditions rather than redirected through a separate reconstruction mechanism.
HT