A post-war plan for Gaza is circulating within US President Donald Trump’s administration that would see the United States administer the war-torn enclave for at least a decade, the relocation of Gaza’s population and its rebuilding as a tourist resort and manufacturing hub, The Washington Post reported on Sunday.
The newspaper said that, according to a 38-page prospectus it had seen, Gaza’s 2 million population would at least temporarily leave either through “voluntary” departures to another country or into restricted areas within the territory during reconstruction.
Anyone who owns land would be offered a “digital token” in exchange for rights to redevelop their property, The Washington Post reported, adding that each Palestinian who left would be provided with US$5,000 in cash and subsidies to cover four years of rent. They would also be provided with a year of food, it added.
The newspaper said the plan is called the “Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust, or GREAT Trust”, and was developed by the GHF.
GHF coordinates with the Israeli military and uses private US security and logistics companies to get food aid into Gaza.
In early August, the UN said more than 1,000 people have been killed trying to receive aid in Gaza since the GHF began operating in May 2025, most of them shot by Israeli forces operating near GHF sites.
The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment but the plan to rebuild Gaza appears to fall in line with previous comments made by Trump.
On February 4, Trump first publicly said the US should “take over” the war-battered enclave and rebuild it as “the Riviera of the Middle East” after resettling the Palestinian population elsewhere.
Trump’s comments about the possible forced relocation from Gaza angered many Palestinians and humanitarian groups.
The Israeli military has gradually escalated its operations around Gaza City over the past three weeks. On Friday it ended temporary pauses in the area that had allowed for aid deliveries, designating it a “dangerous combat zone”.
On Sunday, the head of the World Food Programme said Israel’s designation would impact food access and put humanitarian aid workers in danger.
“It’s going to limit the amount of food that they have access to,” WFP executive director Cindy McCain said on CBS News’ Face the Nation programme.
A report released earlier this month by the global hunger monitor, Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), said that around 514,000 people – nearly a quarter of Gaza’s population – are facing famine conditions in Gaza City and surrounding areas.
Israel has dismissed the IPC’s findings as false and biased, saying it had based its survey on partial data largely provided by Hamas, which did not take into account a recent influx of food.
Israel is also considering annexation in the occupied West Bank as a possible response to France and other countries recognising a Palestinian state, according to three Israeli officials. The idea will be discussed further on Sunday, another official said.
Extension of Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank – de facto annexation of land captured in the 1967 Middle East war – was on the agenda for Netanyahu’s security cabinet meeting late on Sunday, which is expected to focus on the Gaza war, a member of the small circle of ministers said.
Any step towards annexation in the West Bank would be likely to draw widespread condemnation from the Palestinians, who seek the territory for a future state, as well as from Arab and Western countries.
It is unclear where Trump stands on the matter. The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesman for Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar did not respond to a request for comment on whether Saar had discussed the move with his US counterpart Marco Rubio during his visit to Washington last week.
Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the prime minister supports annexation and if so, where.
A past pledge by Netanyahu to annex Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley was scrapped in 2020 in favour of normalising ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in the so-called Abraham Accords brokered by Trump in his first term in office.
Israel is angered by pledges by France, Britain, Australia and Canada to formally recognise a Palestinian state at a summit during the US General Assembly in September.
The United Nations’ highest court in 2024 said Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, including the West Bank, and its settlements there are illegal and should be withdrawn as soon as possible.
Israel argues the territories are not occupied in legal terms because they are on disputed lands, but the United Nations and most of the international community regard them as occupied territory.
Its annexations of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights decades ago have not won international recognition.
Members of Netanyahu’s ruling coalition have been calling for years for Israel to formally annex parts of the West Bank, territory, to which Israel cites biblical and historical ties.
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