The new Palestinian technocratic government tasked with replacing Hamas in Gaza has crafted 71 projects for rehabilitating the war-decimated enclave, aiming to implement them in its first six months. Almost all of the plans however require significant cooperation from Israel, which has been largely reluctant to allow such efforts to date.

The Times of Israel obtained a copy of the “6-Month Gaza Recovery Program” that was drawn up by the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) and finalized during a late August meeting in London of its commissioners.

The NCAG is being closely supervised by the Board of Peace, a US-controlled body that was given a UN Security Council mandate to oversee the postwar management of the Gaza Strip.

The Recovery Program contains one-page summaries of the 71 projects, detailing their expected impact, the NCAG commissioner in charge and how much each will cost over a six-month period. They are designed in a way that potential donor countries and entities could adopt a particular project to bankroll.

The total funding needed for all of the programs is roughly $6 billion. While the US secured pledges for $17 billion in February, only a tiny fraction of that has been delivered and many of the offers came from Gulf countries, which have since shifted priorities amid the Iran war.

No start date is given for the projects, as almost all of them require the NCAG to first begin operating from inside Gaza. The technocratic committee has been stuck in Egypt since its establishment in January, as the Board of Peace spent months coaxing Hamas to accept a disarmament plan that would pave the way for the terror group to hand over control of Gaza to the NCAG.

Hamas finally agreed on July 30, but progress has since been held up by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which rejects the disarmament plan.

While Board of Peace officials believe Netanyahu’s opposition is motivated by the upcoming Knesset election and that the US-controlled panel will be able to advance the initiative after the vote, there are no guarantees that any Israeli government will be willing to cooperate substantially, particularly in the immediate period after the next one is established in November or December.

Not wanting to halt operations completely in the interim, the Board of Peace has sought to advance smaller projects to repair water, sewage and sanitation infrastructure in the Strip. Netanyahu agreed to establish a working group with the Board of Peace to advance such efforts, but an official from the board admitted that those too were largely stuck due to Israeli foot-dragging.

The stagnation means well over half of Gaza’s population of roughly 2 million are almost certain to spend another winter in tattered tents.

Board of Peace officials have also received warnings from Israeli meteorological experts who forecast an earlier winter this year, with more extreme conditions than normal, the two sources familiar said.

In the meantime, the Board of Peace is fine-tuning the NCAG projects and working to secure donations for them. They will be further discussed when its members gather together with senior representatives from the Board of Peace on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly later this month, the sources said.

Notably, the projects are far more modest than the high-end high-rises that were part of the master plan for a “Gaza Riviera” that US special envoy Jared Kushner pitched at the Board of........

© The Times of Israel