Loft-style apartments with floor-to-ceiling windows, an offshore oil and gas rig, advanced industrial zones and park-lined neighborhoods: that is the “New Gaza” vision Jared Kushner presented as a blueprint for rebuilding the battered Palestinian territory after two years of war.
“We’ve already started removing the rubble and doing some of the demolition,” Kushner said while unveiling the plan in Davos. “And then ‘New Gaza.’ 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, have great employment.”
The Gaza Strip is roughly 25 miles long and 4 to 7 miles wide. Before the war it held about 2.2 million people packed into cities and refugee camps; now most residents live in makeshift shelters or damaged homes at risk of collapse. The World Bank estimated in 2024 that damage to critical infrastructure alone exceeded $18 billion.
Kushner’s plan is tied to former President Trump’s ceasefire framework, which conditions Israeli withdrawal and reconstruction on phased decommissioning of Hamas’s weapons. Rebuilding would begin only in areas where Hamas is fully disarmed, or where Palestinians have been removed and Israeli forces control the ground.
The proposal does not address who would receive land deeds or how new housing would be allocated. It offers no clear process for relocating families whose intact or partially intact homes would be demolished — particularly in central and western Gaza City. Critics, including Gazans NPR interviewed, argue the plan erases Gaza and recasts it as an investment opportunity atop ruins that a U.N. commission later said followed genocidal actions by Israel — a charge Israel denies.
It is unclear whether Palestinians were consulted in the plan’s design. Kushner credited Israeli real estate investor Yakir Gabay with playing a key role; both men sit on the White House-appointed Gaza Executive Board that will oversee the plan and report to the Board of Peace. Key elements of the vision include:
1. Less space for housing than before the war
Kushner’s slides show four district-like residential areas separated by large green belts and industrial zones that are equal in size or larger than the areas marked for housing. The plan projects more than half a million jobs in those industrial zones.
A 2024 U.N.-Habitat report described Gaza as almost entirely urbanized — roughly 87% urban area and nearly all the rest refugee camps. Before the war Gaza had nearly 600,000 housing units for about 2.2 million people. The Kushner layout leaves considerably less room for housing than existed prewar, implying either a much smaller resident population or dense reallocation. A spokesperson for the Gaza Executive Board said the reconstruction figures shown are “just the start” but gave no details.
2. Reshaped cities, with some erased
Reconstruction would roll out in phases beginning in the south; two areas labeled “Gaza City” appear in the final phase. Residential zones would be divided into quadrants — Rafah, Khan Younis, Center Camps and Gaza City — separated by expansive parks, agricultural land and industrial or sports areas, with only a few main roads connecting them.
The plan would replace northern Gaza cities and refugee camps such as Beit Lahia and Jabalia with agricultural zones, data centers and advanced manufacturing sites. Other neighborhoods would be razed and rebuilt. Residents in Gaza question whether their preferences were considered. “You’re going to remove people’s homes and put parks instead, but did you ask a single person in Gaza to do this?” asked Rami Abdel-Aal, whose Rafah home was demolished.
3. A new airport and logistics hub — but no independent crossing
Kushner’s vision includes an airport, a train, a port and a logistics hub in southern Gaza. Currently, Gaza’s only practical exit is through land crossings controlled by Israel; the Rafah crossing with Egypt is the main gateway but is subject to restrictions.
Under the plan, the Rafah crossing would be relocated to the southern tip of Gaza and turned into a “trilateral crossing” that touches both Egypt and Israel. Egypt has declined to endorse Israeli control of Rafah and has not publicly commented on the proposal.
4. “New Rafah” as the center of gravity
Rafah, already under Israeli military occupation and largely depopulated, would be reimagined as Gaza’s logistics and possible administrative hub. Kushner’s slides allocate more housing there than in most other zones, suggesting a southward shift of Gaza’s population, which was heavily concentrated in the north before the war.
“New Rafah” would include more than 100,000 permanent housing units and some 200 educational centers. By contrast, Gaza had about 700 schools and 17 higher-education institutions before the conflict. U.N.-Habitat had noted severe housing shortages even before the vast destruction of homes in the war.
An Israeli official told NPR that ground in Rafah is being cleared of unexploded ordnance and tunnels to set up temporary housing, and that Kushner and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff have urged Israel to accelerate rubble clearing. The official said a UAE-funded neighborhood would be built to house thousands; the UAE government did not respond to requests for comment.
5. A coastline for tourists and investors
The entire Mediterranean coastline of Gaza is shown as a zone for “coastal tourism” with 180 mixed-use towers in the plan’s visuals. Renderings depict futuristic towers and a skyline unlike Gaza’s prewar coastal strip of apartments, local hotels, cafes and public beaches. Such redevelopment could make prime beachfront real estate unaffordable for many Palestinians, effectively pricing residents out of areas that once served as public escapes from Gaza’s dense urban fabric.
Contributors: Anas Baba in Gaza City, Ahmed Abuhamda in Cairo, Itay Stern and Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv.
