Kushner unveils new plan for Rafah
The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will reopen next week for two-way travel.
Israel, which controls the Gaza side of the crossing, has rejected reopening it until Hamas fulfils its ceasefire obligation of returning the remains of the last captive held in the territory.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner presented a four-phase “master plan” for Gaza today, displaying maps showing coastal tourism zones, mixed-use towers, residential and industrial areas, with projections of more than $10bn in GDP by 2035, and 500,000 new jobs with at least $25bn in investments for modern utilities and public services.
Plans for the new Rafah include more than 100,000 permanent housing units, at least 180 cultural and religious centres, 200-plus education facilities and 75-plus medical centres.
Gaza framed as a ‘planning’ site at Davos
Looking at what was presented in Davos, it was a sanitised, cosmetic image. Those shiny posters present Gaza more as a future investment project than as a place that needs immediate help and support for people who are on the verge of collapse.
That’s the problem. It is not being dealt with as a place where people are being killed and starved, and being pretty much cornered in every way possible by the acts that the Israeli military is conducting on the ground.
The danger stems from the fact that Gaza is being discussed as an investment and a planning site, rather than as a place where people are being killed on a daily basis – largely ignoring the displacement, the genocidal acts, the starvation and the misery.
Jared Kushner reveals there’s no plan B for “peace” in Gaza.
Plus: Andy Burnham’s path to PM has become a step clearer, Zack Polankski calls for Palantir to have no role in the NHS, and Starmer defiant over Greenland.
