By David Rosenberg, World Israel News
President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner laid out plans Thursday for the US-led Board of Peace to rebuild the Gaza Strip and develop it into a high-income regional economic hub, following the disarming of terror groups and demilitarization of the Gaza Strip.
The plan calls for the creation of a “new Gaza,” centered around the four-phase rehabilitation of the area’s main urban centers and a capital-intensive development of surrounding areas, establishing a new seaport, airport, rail line, industrial zones, and tourist centers.
The proposal comes with a projected cost of $25 billion and would take a total of nine years, and is expected to raise the gross domestic product of the Gaza Strip to more than $10 billion, raising the average annual household income to more than $13,000.
Kushner emphasized that the Trump administration and the Board of Peace are committed to rebuilding the Gaza Strip, sidestepping questions of whether Hamas’ ongoing refusals to disarm would hamper the reconstruction plans.
“We do not have a Plan B,” Kushner said. “In the beginning, we were toying with the idea of saying: ‘Let’s build a free zone and then we have a Hamas zone.’”
“Then we said: ‘Let’s just plan for catastrophic success.’ Hamas signed a deal to demilitarize. That is what we are going to enforce.”
“We have a plan, we signed an agreement, we are all committed to making that plan work.”
Reconstruction will begin in southern Gaza, starting with the border city of Rafah, and move northward.
Kushner estimated that Rafah will be rebuilt in two to three years.
The Board of Peace program presented during Kushner’s speech also laid out a framework for the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, offering “amnesty and reintegration” to terrorists in exchange for disarming.
“Disarmament rewarded with amnesty & reintegration, or safe passage,” a slide show projected during Kushner’s address read in part.
Hamas and other terror groups will be required to hand over their arsenals in stages, beginning with heavy weapons, which will be decommissioned “immediately,” while “personal arms” are “registered and decommissioned by sector” as the technocratic committee set to govern Gaza “becomes capable of guaranteeing personal security.”
Notably, the plan does not rule out the integration of terrorist groups into the new Gaza police force.
Trump to unveil ‘day after’ plan for Gaza in 2 weeks, may include Palestinian police force – report
“All militant armed groups, internal security, and police organizations dismantled or integrated into NCAG following rigorous vetting.”
