US touts ‘New Gaza’ filled with luxury real estate

DAVOS, Switzerland - US officials on Jan 22 presented their vision for a “New Gaza” that would turn the shattered Palestinian territory into a glitzy resort of skyscrapers by the sea, a project that could start emerging in three years.

“We’re going to be very successful in Gaza. It’s going to be a great thing to watch,” US President Donald Trump said, while presenting his controversial “Board of Peace” conflict-resolution body in Davos.

“I’m a real estate person at heart... and I said, look at this location on the sea. Look at this beautiful piece of property. What it could be for so many people,” he said, at the World Economic Forum.

His son-in-law, Mr Jared Kushner, who has no official title but is one of Mr Trump’s envoys for the Gaza ceasefire, said his “master plan” aimed for “catastrophic success”.

With a slide showing dozens of shiny terraced apartment towers overlooking a tree-lined promenade, he promised a Mediterranean utopia rising from the scarred Gaza landscape.

“In the Middle East, they build cities like this, you know for two or three million people, they build this in three years,” Mr Kushner said.

“And so stuff like this is very doable if we make it happen.”

He touted investments of at least US$25 billion (S$32 billion) to rebuild infrastructure and public services destroyed since the war sparked by

Hamas’ October 2023 attack on Israel.

Within 10 years, the territory’s GDP would be US$10 billion, and households would enjoy an average income of US$13,000 a year, thanks to “100 per cent full employment and opportunity for everybody there”.

“It could be a hope. It could be a destination, have a lot of industry and really be a place that the people there can thrive,” he said.

‘Amazing’ opportunities

He said the so-called National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) had enlisted help from Israeli real estate developer Yakir Gabay.

“He’s volunteered to do this not for profit, really because of his heart, he wants to do this,” Mr Kushner said.

“So, the next 100 days, we’re going to continue to just be heads down and focused on making sure this is implemented.”

A top UN official warned this month that Gazans were living in “inhumane” conditions even as the US-backed truce entered its second phase.

Entire neighbourhoods, hospitals and schools have been heavily damaged or destroyed, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to live in makeshift shelters.

Mr Kushner said 85 per cent of Gaza’s economic output had been aid for a long time.

“That’s not sustainable. It doesn’t give these people dignity. It doesn’t give them hope,” he said.

He insisted that the full disarming of Hamas, as called for in the October ceasefire, would convince firms and donors to commit to the territory.

“We’ll announce a lot of the contributions that will be made in a couple of weeks in Washington,” he said.

“There’ll be amazing investment opportunities.” AFP