UAE plans to bankroll first ‘planned community’ in south Gaza

[Twiglets1]

Guardian Exclusive: Blueprints describe a ‘case study’ community where residents submit biometric data to gain entry:

The United Arab Emirates plans to fund “Gaza’s first planned community” on the ruined outskirts of Rafah. Palestinian residents there will have access to basic services like education, healthcare and running water, as long as they submit to biometric data collection and security vetting, according to planning documents and people familiar with the latest round of talks at the US-led Civil Military Coordination Center in Israel.

The planned city would mark the UAE’s first investment in a postwar reconstruction project located in the part of Gaza currently held by Israel. The wealthy Gulf state has contributed more than $1.8bn of humanitarian assistance to Gaza since 7 October 2023, according to UAE state media, making it Gaza’s largest humanitarian donor.

Blueprints for the Emirati-backed endeavor are laid out in an unclassified slide deck obtained by the Guardian and first reported by Dropsite, but the UAE’s role as its planned financier has not previously been reported. The presentation was prepared for a cohort of European donors who visited the CMCC on 14 January, according to an aid official who shared details about the briefing on the condition of anonymity. Israeli military planners have given the plans their stamp of approval.

The United Arab Emirates did not comment on its decision to endorse the Board of Peace, or its plans to fund one of the first US- and Israeli-backed reconstruction projects in Gaza.

One US official said that the first Emirati-backed compound could “become a model” for a string of residential camps that US and Israeli officials have described as “alternative safe communities”.

Within the first Rafah community, billed as a “case study”, planners envision several efforts to prevent the influence of Hamas, including the introduction of electronic shekel wallets “to mitigate the diversion of goods and funds to the Hamas financial channels”, and a school curriculum that will “not be Hamas-based”, but supplied by the UAE. Planners also specify that residents will be permitted to “enter and exit the neighborhood freely, subject to security checks to prevent the introduction of weapons and hostile elements”.

A White House spokesperson said that the Emirati-backed compound would be built during the board’s initial reconstruction push.

Land-clearing efforts for the Rafah site are already under way, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson told the Guardian.

“Israel’s mission on the east side of the yellow line is to clear the infrastructure in that territory, including tunnels, booby-trapped houses – all of the infrastructure left on our side,” the IDF spokesperson said.

They also said that Israel would not participate in building or running the Emirati compound. “When construction begins, that’s when the ISF participates with boots on the ground.”

A project timeline obtained by the Guardian indicates that site planning began with a “land deed” review in late October and will entail at least four to six months of preparations before construction begins.

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/23/uae-funds-gaza-community

I guess this is a rhetorical question because the answer is obvious. Sad but true that unless someone specifically pays for the bodies to be recovered, they won’t be.

For once we agree but how hypocritically disgusting is that.

We disagree here because I believe their life should be better without Hamas rather than “even worse”. Could it even get much worse than what years of living under Hamas rule has led them to?

I don’t know how this planned community in south Gaza will work out for Gazans or indeed from the bigger peace plan. But I fail to see how it could get much worse for them than living in tents in refugee camps in poverty which is the current reality for so many.

Why is it hypocritical though? If you are alluding to the fact that Israel got most of their dead bodies returned, they only achieved this through hard negotiations. They paid a high price for the return of their hostages dead & alive.

Hamas negotiated different things in the peace settlement such as the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners.

If I were unfortunate enough to be born a Gazan, I would rather live in a tent for the time being and slowly try to rebuild myself than be put in a secure ghetto, having their kids brainwashed with Israeli propaganda trying to erase their history and be forced to work for the very people who put me there in order to survive. As well as food and shelter, people need dignity and self determination or it is no life at all.

The unpalatable reality is it doesn't actually matter how willing the Gazan people are to accept that their lives are shittier now than they were pre 7th October, it's the truth either way. They do not have agency or any prospect of it in the near future.

As for whether getting rid of Hamas/similar groups is a solution, we can only guess. There are examples of movements who've been so badly militarily beaten that they stop being a threat, hence there's been no problem with Japanese imperialism for 80 years now. Equally there are some where you can't kill the idea.

I think most take the view that the best chance of change comes if you give people better options. That would definitely be my preference, my concerns are over how to do this in practice. But leaving the population to their tents is also one of the possibilities here.

That is exactly why I’m saying it is hypocritically disgusting. If it were an Israeli body, or any other western nation, the world would be up in arms.

There still is an Israeli's body left in Gaza, and I wouldn't say the world is particularly up in arms about that tbh. Don't hear anything much about it, and it evidently isn't functioning as a barrier to this planned community idea. His family think the world has forgotten them.

Japanese imperialism ended because of the economic boom which they enjoyed which partly began as a result of the US pumping billions of dollars into the country in order to supply its troops in the Korean war. Jamming the entire population of Gaza into a secure labour camp and forcing them into indentured labour is not improving their lives.

The world was up in arms about it and Israel used the delay in recovering the bodies as an excuse to break the ceasefire. The fact that it seems no one knows where the remaining body is is sad to say the least but at least there is/was an attempt to recover it. I believe there isn’t even going to be an attempt to recover and identify the Palestinian bodies.

It is the fact that no one cares about the Palestinians that gets me. I thought that the days of Israel gaslighting the world into believing they were the good guys and the Palestinians were the bad guys was over but unfortunately it appears I’m wrong.

There are multiple factors that led to the end of Japanese imperialism, and yes the economic support is one of them. This is one of the reasons I'm in favour of giving the Gazan people better options.

I don't see anything to suggest this proposal would include the whole population of Gaza, and indeed the security requirements would suggest otherwise. But even if it did, we are still left with the unfortunate reality that nobody has yet identified a better reconstruction option that stands any chance of happening. If you think you'd prefer the tent festering, Rohingya treatment, that's up to you but presumably you understand that Gazans are not a hive mind and might disagree?

You say 'bodies' plural here, and 'was'. But previously you used the present tense and said body in the singular, ie what's happening now. That's what we're talking about.

The world is clearly not up in arms about that one body still being in Gaza and it's not preventing any of the plans, which the person's family are actually pretty fucked off about.

The fact is Gaza has now been stolen from the Palestinians and the theft is being touted as a solution for the poor Palestinians. It is as simple as that. It is disgusting colonialism in its purest form.

I actually wouldn't.

I would do anything not to bring my children up in a tent in Gaza with no prospects for doing anything other than perpetuating the same cycle of misery & poverty.

Why shouldn't the people of Gaza have the basic things we take for granted in life such as decent housing and healthcare? Hating Israel a bit less could be beneficial to the prospects of their children and as for being brainwashed, that is happening already with Hamas propaganda.

Even Israel accepted that the last body is possibly irrecoverable. They tried to find it and it seems it has been accepted that they can’t find it. No one is even talking about trying to recover any Palestinian bodies.

This is a separate point to whether the world would be up in arms if it were one Israeli's body still there. They're not. You can make the point about how awful it is that so many bodies are lost in Gaza and there seems no realistic prospect of recovery or burial without saying things that are demonstrably not true.

The basic things you’re talking about are the things a prisoner has, not you and I.

I disagree that the world would be up in arms about Israeli dead bodies. There was less sympathy for 7/10/23 than I would have expected and that was an attack on live Israelis.

You know who really, really cares about Israeli dead bodies? Israel does.

That is one of the many tragedies about Gazans, that even their own leaders show very little concern for them alive or dead apart from using them for propaganda.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/thousands-protest-the-government-demand-return-of-ran-gvilis-body-at-demonstrations-across-israel/

Will there be any protests anywhere for the Palestinian bodies.

And none of this does the slightest thing to improve life for a single Gazan.

Because this is where we are. The Gazans are paying the biggest price for a set of circumstances that they didn't bring about all by themselves, that plenty of other actors are also responsible for. They are in an awful position. For those Gazans who don't prefer long term tent festering, and I hope we can all agree that they're not a Borg and will have different views, nobody is currently offering anything else.

It is a fact of humanity that the losing side in any war doesn’t get to set the terms of reconstruction. Gazan citizens will have the choice to live in a neighbourhood free from Hamas, with access to housing, food, water, medical care and work. Many will think the freedoms they give up will be worth it. Some will do it out of desperation because living permanently in tents is a horrible life. Others will refuse. It is up to each individual Gazan to make their choice.

Rather than getting sanctimonious, those of us in the west should have a look at what life was like for German citizens immediately after the Second World War.

Do you think that a protest in Israel amounts to the world being up in arms? Because that's what you said. Ran Gvili's body is not even a news story of much importance outside Israel itself now. It certainly isn't causing any widespread consternation. The news cycle has very much moved on. This is an odd hill to die on.

So basically outrage at injustice is a selective concept.

Yes but Germans were not stateless and were allowed to rebuild their country.