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 agree. History should be taught truthfully in its entirety without whitewashing any of it. In the US, for years, the Cuban missile crisis was taught as a great victory where the US heroically stood up to Soviet aggression and the Soviets blinked first. The reality is, the Soviets only agreed to remove their missiles from Cuba because the US agreed, in a secret deal, that they would remove their Jupiter missiles from Turkey which they had moved there a few years earlier and was the reason the Soviets were moving missiles to Cuba. It was Kennedy that blinked first, not Krushchev. So I would like Palestinian children to be taught history as it happened, truthfully, such as the positive contributions of the Sassoon family to the Arab world, but I suspect there will be no mention of the Nakba, Deir Yassin or Tantura in their curriculum.

Any curriculum shouldn't whitewash tragedy like Deir Yassan- dishonest and would lead adults to feel 'they hid the truth from us'. But it should be balanced - also show some Arab leaders' anti Semitism (Nasser using Nazis like Alois Brunner to write propaganda, the Mufti inciting massacres, moderates being assaainated in the Mandate period). Curriculum should also focus that terrorism is never an appropriate response to injustice,and not take an overt side as to who is right as that's not school's job.

How on earth would you teach that terrorism is never an appropriate response and then teach about how Israel achieved independence from Britain.

2 years ago on this board someone recommended '50 years war' (BBC, late 90's, also on you tube), so , as I have many times since then, I went down that rabbit hole.
In the first 15 minutes, in the first episode, there are interviews with people who lived in Deir Yassin and with the Arab radio station that broadcast the news.
So many years later and the people in the region are still pawns to wider power plays, (as most of us are tbf). One thing I appreciate about this series is that it speaks to people who were actually there. I listened to their voices and layered it on what I've gleaned elsewhere.

It's a thought provoking narrative when compared with current feelings.

The Haganah, at least generally, did not engage in terrorism. Lehi & Irgun were arguably far more of a barrier than a help, aside from being disgustingly immoral.

That's not what antisemitic means...

Please. Let’s not continue this pretence that this is a good outcome for Gazans.

They should be grateful @Snuppeline ? For what? For having their homes destroyed, families killed, the entire infrastructure of their existence decimated, land stolen and control shifted of the remains of their lives from the IDF to UAE?

It’s their land, remember?

It’s never a good outcome for the losing side in a war. Just because Hamas hasn’t officially surrendered doesn’t mean they haven’t lost and it’s the civilians who suffer the most from Hamas’s suicidal attack on Israel.

Going back to the topic, according to a map reviewed by Reuters, the UAE has prepared plans to build a large housing compound near Rafah for thousands of displaced Palestinians in a section of the Gaza Strip that remains under Israeli military control.

Donors have been reluctant to commit funds to Trumps plan for the reconstruction of Gaza, worried that disagreements over disarming Hamas could lead the parties back to full scale conflict.

However there are doubts about the viability of the Emirates project, as many Palestinians would balk at being housed in an Israeli-occupied zone while the vast majority of civilians live in Hamas-run areas of Gaza, diplomats said.

In response to questions about this story, an Emirati official said the Gulf country “remains committed to scaling up its humanitarian efforts to support Palestinians in Gaza” without confirming or denying plans to build this temporary housing site.

Hamas refusing to surrender and fuck off, limiting the possibilities for reconstruction with all the poor outcomes for Palestinian future that entails.
Useful idiots complaining about efforts to help Palestinians nonetheless, while pointedly ignoring the role Hamas are still playing in fucking everything up.
Same shit different day.

Exactly @dairydebris

It’s everyone else’s fault according to some on here.

Israel, the US, now the UAE being criticised

The main focus of their criticism is never on Hamas but what is needed for the situation to improve in Gaza is firstly for Hamas to fuck off. Then maybe some countries might be willing to invest in rebuilding Gaza on the side where most civilians are actually living ( the areas currently seen as Hamas-run).

This is a hood starting point. I hope it works well and serves as a model ans initial stage for further deradicalised communities in Gaza, living safe from Hamas and in acceptance of their neighbour.

Hamas really didn't do them any good. It didn't have to be this way. If 7th October didn't occur .........

Totally.