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

Strongly agree, though I don't trust the UAE much...

Good guys & bad guys? Is that how you see this conflict?

Frankly, that's a poor way to describe entire armies & groups of civilians in any conflict.

They're still going to be living there?

I don't think the real estate riviera plan will happen, surely?

Exactly.

The book A Historian in Gaza is excellent. The author reports clan groups wanting to challenge Hamas but too afraid/ineffective, and widespread anger against the PA leader Abbas, who wallowed in wealth & did very little that was useful for decades. Hamas will be beaten fully only when a good alternative is available. Until then, we need the peace board.

Dead bodies should be preserved however possible though, not built over by luxury resorts. That would be disgusting.

These luxury resorts are speculative at the moment, right, though?

Germans & Japanese were able to bury their dead, I think - for the most part?

There have already been recovery efforts.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/02/the-grim-task-of-recovering-thousands-of-bodies-from-the-rubble-of-gaza

Will Gazans then really not be able to live at the coast?

So much for pan-Arab solidarity! I put Egypt in that too, as if they'd opened the Rafah crossing more, at least to women and small children, so many could have been saved.

Thank you for the book recommendation.

Some people seem to automatically think that anything that could change things for the people of Gaza must be bad. I don't know why they are singled out in this way as not deserving better than more of the same old shit.

But change can be good too especially if existing situation is so awful. I share your reservations about the UAE but hopefully enough eyes will be on this development that that they will have to ensure it's not all just about making money but also about providing better opportunities for Gazans.

I looked this up and over a million Germans went missing in WW2 - this includes all sorts of situations but all the pages agree there were hundreds of thousands of civilians who were never recovered. Thousands of Japanese civilians killed by the nuclear bombs were also never found and they apparently still came across them for decades after. So again no, this isn’t unique or unusual just very, very sad.

Why do people keep harking back 80 years to try and justify things today? There are lots of things that happened 80 years ago, it doesn't mean it should happen today.

It's well known that the retrieval of bodies after disasters whether they are natural disasters or man made as in this case is important. For example it's important for the psychological well being of survivors, watching the disrespectful treatment of their loved ones is just healing more trauma on people who have spent the past two years living in the most dangerous place on earth, imagine watching your children being bulldozed away like dirt, disposed of like rubble?

Palestinians deserve closure and justice. Bulldozing it all away, building high rises and pretending like the past 2 years never happened isn't going to work. It's just going to further traumatise and possibly radicalise people to see their loved ones being treated with the same respect as rubble. Treated like dirt, again.

Nobody is even stopping to ask Palestinians what they want. No self determination again. We think it's best for you that we throw your loved in the pile of rubble so that's what we are going to do and you better be grateful for it.

Do you really think anyone cares whether the Palestinians are traumatised? When I say anyone, I don’t just mean the Israeli government, I mean all the world’s leaders now. I’ve come to the conclusion that there are only two types of so called leaders. The pathetically weak or the morally corrupt. The Palestinians have been persecuted, treated worse than dirt with no self determination for decades and not one of the world’s leaders have done anything to help them. Now they’re going to be corralled into labour camps with no choice but to become cheap labour for the very people who destroyed what little dignity they had left.

I hate this plan but I hate having no plan too. The entire situation is a huge mess - aided and abetted by horrible people on all sides for generations now. There's obviously nothing productive that can happen by funnelling more and more money through Hamas, we can't rely on the rest of the area's countries to take in loads of refugees, they can't carry on as they are in tents freezing... there's no amazing solution.

The marches (where I am) are calling for Israel to be dismantled and the Palestinians basically moving into Haifa, etc. That's not going to happen. So what's the compromise? I think this plan is terrible and won't end well but I also have no idea what anyone could possibly suggest at this point.

And no - I don't think what happened 80 years ago is the only important consideration, but I also don't think there's anything surprising or unique about this situation and we have seen - and continue seeing - horrible things happening in waves across every part of the world. There's no reason Israel should be held to a higher standard and no reason to expect otherwise. There's not a single place in their entire world that exists through endless peace and friendliness and any sort of country border or creation has some sort of violence as a part of it.

The Palestinian leadership is primarily to blame for the rolling disaster normal Palestinians find themselves embroiled in. Time and time again all I see on this forum is anger at Israel, anger at the US, anger at other Arab nations for their mistreatment of Palestinians. But rarely any anger at Hamas, the PA, the utterly shit leadership ever since the Mufti aligned himself with Hitler.
Palestinians need decent leadership that centres their future rather than fighting a battle lost 80 years ago.
The people who should most care are the Palestinians in leadership positions- Abbas and Hamas. Yet as always, barely any mention of these 2 on here.

There is every reason Israel should be investigated for war crimes. It's not about Israel and holding them to higher standards. It's about the bereaved Palestinians, the traumatised Palestinians, the Palestinians who have been held in captivity, the Palestinians who have lost everything. They deserve an investigation into what has happened over the past 2 years.

Israel are centred all of the time, poor Israel, people wanting Palestinian death to be investigated, people wanting Palestinian bodies to be treated with the respect they deserve, poor Israel. I'm actually sick of hearing about Israel. Israel are doing just fine. When do we get to the point where the people who have lost everything become the centre of the conversation, when their thoughts and feelings on the situation are taken into account, is there ever going to a point where they matter even half as much as Israel? Where every conversation doesn't turn back to this frankly nutso idea that everyone just wants Israel destroyed and everytime people advocate for Palestinians they are doing so because they hate Israel rather than they think that everybody deserves respect and self determination even if they were born in Palestine?

Really! It’s all the fault of the Palestinian leadership. So tell me, when the Palestinian leadership officially recognised Israel and its right to exist, set up a police force and started arresting Palestinians, handing them over to the IDF, what did they get in return? Did the land theft in the West Bank stop, no, it accelerated. Did Israel recognise Palestine as they had agreed to during the Oslo peace talks, no, they didn’t. Did Israel start working towards a two state solution, no, they killed the idea and boasted about it. Ehud Olmert is thought of as a moderate. When Israel put up the air, sea and land blockade over Gaza and then controlled the amount of food that was going in he said “The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger”. Please tell me again how it is all the fault of the Palestinian leadership.

Trouble with asking Palestinians what they want is that the majority might say they want Hamas to remain in power.

What then? They can't have what they want if what they want is to continue to be ruled by a terrorist death cult.

Though I do believe a lot of them are radicalised or too afraid of Hamas to even think about speaking out against them, which is not exactly their fault.

Trouble is they might give the wrong answer so it's best not to ask. Just bulldoze their childrens bodies, build what we want to build, make them do what we want them to do and then in 10 years time ask why they still aren't happy because look at all that we gave them, how ungrateful.

I'm not up for giving you a history lesson today.

You write Palestinian agency and accountability out of this, you infantilize them and make them eternal victims of powers that surround them. You give them no control over their future, and no hope.

Has making Palestinians the eternal victims of others worked out well for them so far? You honestly think that Palestinian leadership holds no accountability for the state of current affairs? If so, you can't honestly claim to have any objective points to make, and nothing I say will make any difference to you.

It would be good to know what Gazans want, but unfortunately there is no current mechanism for finding that out. The majority live under Hamas control and can't speak freely. Which means even if they were asked, and I agree that's clearly not happening, no accurate conclusion could be drawn from the results.

I understand that you feel strongly on this but your accusations are way out of line. I won't be continuing this discussion with you under the circumstances.

@RedSongBird

The Palestinians have been persecuted, treated worse than dirt with no self determination for decades and not one of the world’s leaders have done anything to help them.

Not done anything to help them? Arab and Israeli leaders have tried again and again and had their hand bitten almost every time. I’d guess the only regime below whose treatment you’d approve of below would be Saddam Husseins.

Jordan. Accepted the most refugees and granted most citizenship. Palestinian groups tried to overthrow govt, sparking civil war (1970-71).

Lebanon. Hosted 200k+ refugees. Armed Palestinian groups a major driver of civil war (1975-90).

Kuwait. Gave 400k employment rights. PLO supported Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, leading to most Palestinians being expelled (1990-91).

Iraq. Saddam hosted many Palestinians right up until he was toppled.

Syria. Hosted 500k refugees. Palestinians took up arms in civil war (2011+).

Israel: granted 150,000 Palestinians citizenship after the 1948 war, now making up about 20% of Israel’s pop, many very well integrated. Pre-2023, 150,000 Palestinians had Israel worker permits including 20,000 Gazans. Evidence that some of those guest workers abetted the Oct 7 massacre.

Can you envisage any way that the Palestinian population will ever be given full Israeli citizenship and all the privileges that entails or half of the land of Israel handed over to them to create an independent Palestinian state. If the answer is no, they are eternal victims with no control over their future.

You've ignored all the decisions made over the years by their own leaders, that have bought them to this place.

I don't agree with your dark assessment of the situation. I think there are Palestinians out there who could provide decent leadership and a 2SS is possible. Don't you think?

It requires the shit leaders to get out of the way first, and that's what everyone should be marching for.

It almost sounds as if you want them to be eternal victims. But I can't imagine why that would be hmmmm?

@RedSongBird Israel has already given citizenship to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and offered it to others who declined it. They are amongst the few Arab populations in the region with full democratic and civil rights. Many serve with distinction in the IDF, though they are not required to unlike most other Israelis.