Donald Trump's ambitious plan to rebuild Gaza has shrunk from a blueprint to fully reconstruct the devastated enclave into a limited pilot project near Rafah , raising fresh questions over whether months of Israeli military operations and restrictions have rendered the original vision impossible.
An investigation by The Guardian on Thursday revealed that the US-backed Board of Peace (BoP) has dramatically scaled back its plans for post-war Gaza after months of political and logistical deadlock.
Rather than overseeing the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, the initiative is now focused on establishing a temporary camp for tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians in the south of the devastated territory.
US officials further said that even this hugely reduced project is unlikely to take shape before the end of the year.
From grand vision to Rafah pilot
The shift represents a striking retreat from the vision unveiled by the Board of Peace in January, when Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner presented the initiative as a comprehensive programme to rebuild Gaza within 100 days.
The original proposal promised to restore the enclave's water, electricity and sewage networks, alongside hospitals, bakeries and other essential civilian infrastructure, as part of a broader plan for post-war governance and recovery.
Instead, the Board of Peace is now pursuing a far more modest scheme centred on portable accommodation near Rafah, protected by an international stabilisation force and a vetted Palestinian police contingent.
Did Israeli policy make the plan unworkable?
The dramatic reduction follows months in which Israel has continued deadly military attacks inside Gaza despite the Trump-brokered ceasefire, while blocking reconstruction work and maintaining severe restrictions on humanitarian supplies and so-called dual-use materials needed to rebuild civilian infrastructure.
The Guardian also reports that the Israeli government has yet to approve the deployment of the proposed International Stabilisation Force or the Palestinian police force intended to operate inside a "pilot zone" in Gaza.
According to the investigation, Aryeh Lightstone, the Trump administration's lead negotiator in Israel and a Board of Peace adviser, privately urged the Israeli government in June to ease restrictions on dual-use goods and approve both security mechanisms. However the requests have not yet been approved.
Israeli forces have continued expanding their military presence inside Gaza since the ceasefire, with diplomats expressing concern that little progress on reconstruction is likely before Israel's elections on 27 October.
For some diplomats involved in discussions over the project, the Board of Peace's revised proposal appears less an attempt to rebuild Gaza than an effort to prevent the initiative from collapsing altogether.
"The aim is just to keep something going, keep the ball in play," one Western diplomat told The Guardian , warning that abandoning the project entirely could leave the way open for more hardline proposals advocating the displacement of Palestinians and the establishment of Israeli settlements in Gaza.
The report also cites growing concern that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing a difficult election campaign, could launch a renewed large-scale offensive before October's vote, potentially derailing even the scaled-back pilot project.
A temporary solution, or a new reality?
Critics argue the revised proposal represents not simply a reduction in ambition but a fundamental change in the international community's approach to post-war Gaza.
Muhammad Shehada, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told The Guardian the scheme risked creating a tightly controlled enclave that could be used to present an image of progress while much of the Strip remained devastated.
Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has also described the proposed camp as resembling a "concentration camp", while Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian warned that temporary arrangements "must never become a substitute for a comprehensive solution or serve to normalise an unacceptable reality".