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