A quick route to rebuild half of Gaza, or another U.S. pipe dream?

Jerusalem: Vice President JD Vance and Jared Kushner, a son-in-law of President Donald Trump, both said this week that the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip did not necessarily have to wait until Hamas was disarmed or no longer a threat in the territory.

A ceasefire that came into effect this month divides Gaza along the so-called yellow line — between the eastern, inland half under the control of the Israeli military and the Hamas-controlled part of the enclave. Reconstruction could begin very soon in the Israeli-controlled part, the two Americans, who were on visits to Israel, told reporters.

“No reconstruction funds will be going into areas that Hamas still controls,” Kushner said on Tuesday. But he spoke of building “a new Gaza” on the Israeli-held side.

The idea has great appeal to Israel’s supporters: a chance to create a model Palestinian community with no rockets or tunnels that could threaten Israel.

The approach is reminiscent of the improbable “Riviera of the Middle East” plan Trump once imagined for a Gaza depopulated of Palestinians.

Keeping Hamas operatives out of a rebuilt swath of Gaza could entail such heavy-handed security that it may look like another military occupation, experts said.

A key question here is whether such a reconstruction effort could truly take root in a way that points toward a more durable peace or would be seen as merely a back door to another Israeli military occupation. Arab countries will also be wary of being involved in a plan that could be seen as aiding an occupation.

Most of Gaza’s 2 million people have been displaced repeatedly in two years of war. For many, the offer of a fresh start in a community built from scratch cannot overcome their attachment to a specific patch of Gaza land.

“Too many people talk about us like we’re chess pieces,” said Mohammed Fares, 25, who is living in Deir al-Balah after his family home in Gaza City was destroyed. “They think we can just be moved from one space to another.”

What is east of the yellow line?

Under the ceasefire, the Israeli military pulled back to an area totaling 53% of the Gaza Strip, roughly its eastern half. Palestinians have been warned to stay out of that side of Gaza; some who have ignored those warnings or been confused by the boundary have been killed. The Israelis have begun marking the territory with yellow-painted concrete blocks.

The Israeli military said that when the ceasefire went into effect, there were about 30,000 Palestinians in areas of Rafah and Khan Younis, in southern Gaza — areas where the Israeli military is in control. The military said it is allowing those Palestinians to leave and enter Hamas-controlled areas, but not to return back to the Israeli-controlled areas.

Otherwise, officials say, much of the area under the control of Israel is now a wasteland where the only people for miles in any direction are soldiers.

Why are U.S. officials embracing this idea?

Vance voiced strong support for the idea during his visit to Israel.

“This is all still pretty early, but that’s the basic idea,” Vance said on Thursday. “Take the areas where Hamas is not operating, start to rebuild very quickly, start to bring in the Gazans so they can live there, so they can have good jobs and hopefully some security and comfort, too.”

A proposal for reconstruction of areas Hamas no longer controls has broad political appeal among supporters of Israel, including some who have criticized its conduct of the war. Michael Koplow, of the liberal Israel Policy Forum, said it amounted to a welcome do-over opportunity.

“Had Israel treated the areas that the IDF cleared out over the course of the war as opportunity zones to create a functional day after, it would have prevented Hamas from reestablishing itself in those places once the IDF left — which is why the IDF kept on entering the same neighborhoods three or even four times,” Koplow wrote in a newsletter Thursday, referring to the Israel Defense Forces.

What are the risks?

Tamir Hayman, a former chief of Israeli military intelligence, said it was one thing to rebuild east of the yellow line and another to allow Palestinians to move back in while keeping Hamas out.

“You will need to screen, 24/7, every bad-entity individual that passes through,” he said. “You’ll need outposts and checkpoints. And if you call it a new form of occupation of Gaza, you might be right. And I think Hamas will try to disrupt it. It will try to infiltrate, to create attacks inside this new area, as a resistance to the occupation.”

What do Palestinians think?

The U.S. government seems to be misunderstanding Gaza’s geography, said Ayed Abu Ramadan, chair of the Gaza Governorate Chamber of Commerce. “Israel is mostly occupying agricultural and industrial lands,” he said. “So they’re going to build residential structures there? That isn’t logical.”

He interpreted Kushner’s remarks more as a threat to Hamas than as a proposal that can be carried out. “They’re trying to tell Hamas that it needs to work with Trump’s plan,” he said.

Taking the idea seriously, Abu Ramadan raised concerns about who would be allowed to live in the new Gaza neighborhoods and why.

“They’ll end up separating families,” he said. “They’ll say certain people can’t go because there are question marks about them. They’ll be denied entry because they called the wrong person one time to offer condolences, they shook the wrong person’s hand in the street or their cousin is the wrong person.”

Fares, the displaced Palestinian, said he was trying to repair his home in Gaza City that was damaged during the war and did not want to move elsewhere.

“I don’t see any benefit to this program,” he said. “We want to rebuild our homes in Gaza City. My roots are there.”