One of the main proposals for rebuilding the Gaza Strip that US President Donald Trump’s administration has presented to potential Gulf donor countries envisions the construction of roughly half a dozen residential regions on the eastern half of the Strip, which is currently under Israeli control, two Arab diplomats familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.

The diplomats said that “new Gaza” is the term frequently used by US officials to describe the project that will take place on the eastern side of the Yellow Line — the newly created boundary to which the IDF withdrew on October 10 at the start of the Gaza ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

The partial withdrawal left Israel in control of roughly 53 percent of Gaza, but Trump’s plan for ending the war envisions the IDF gradually withdrawing to the other side of the Gaza border and leaving the Strip altogether.

However, that withdrawal is linked to the success of a still-to-be-established International Stabilization Force (ISF) tasked with securing postwar Gaza, along with the disarmament of the Hamas terror group, which has shown no interest in giving up its weapons.

With those two conditions for continued Israeli withdrawal so difficult to meet, the US is not waiting to begin the reconstruction process, and Trump’s top adviser Jared Kushner has indicated that Washington wants to start with the Israeli side of the Yellow Line and with the southern city of Rafah in particular.

The US proposal envisions as many as one million Palestinians — around half of Gaza’s population — moving to the residential areas........

© The Times of Israel