Luxury apartments, holiday resorts and mosques: A team led by US President Trump has presented a plan for the Gaza Strip. Whether it is realistic is questionable.
Dec 21, 2025, 06:29Dec 21, 2025, 06:29
In the fall of 2024, US President Donald Trump announced that he wanted to turn the Gaza Strip into a holiday area, the “Riviera of the Middle East”. Now the plans for “Project Sunrise” are apparently becoming more concrete. A presentation has become public that provides details about possible developments in the war zone.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff worked on the plan. Accordingly, a futuristic metropolis is to be created from the ruins in Gaza City, with skyscrapers, luxury resorts on the beach and a high-speed railway.
A drawing from the presentation for “Project Sunrise”. Image: project sunrise
The 32 PowerPoint slides available to the newspaper are marked “Sensitive but not secret”. In addition to computer representations of modern residential complexes, a marina and stand greenery, they also contain tables about possible costs. According to the newspaper, the plan was presented to some Gulf states, Turkey and Egypt.
“Project Sunrise” is expected to cost $112.2 billion and be developed over at least ten years. The USA could contribute $60 billion in loans and guarantees. The rest should come from investors and other countries. The Gaza administration could then further develop the project and repay the debt, according to the proposal.
Jared Kushner is Donald Trump’s business man.Image: keystone
Kushner, Witkoff and senior White House adviser Josh Gruenbaum and other U.S. officials have been developing the proposal over the past 45 days, U.S. officials told the newspaper. There was also input from Israel and representatives of the private sector. Once the project gets underway, they plan to update and revise the numbers about every two years as development progresses, government officials told the WSJ.
So far no progress in implementing the peace plan
However, it is questionable how realistic the plan is. Because despite the Israeli offensive and a ceasefire, there is no progress. Hamas has still not agreed to give up its weapons. But this is an essential prerequisite for the next phases of a peace plan.
“You can create as many slides as you want,” Steven Cook, senior fellow for the Middle East at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank, told the Wall Street Journal. “No one in Israel believes that they are making any progress, and everyone is okay with that.”
Debris and bombs must be cleared away
Another question is where the people who now live in the destroyed houses in the Gaza Strip will live during the construction work. The plan talks about accommodation and clinics. There are said to be at least two million Palestinians.
After years of war, the Gaza Strip is in ruins.Image: keystone
In addition, millions of tons of rubble would have to be cleared away, including thousands of corpses and unexploded bombs. Therefore, the construction phases should be divided into phases. It should start with Rafah City 1, then follow Khan Yunis and finally Gaza City. In Rafah alone, more than 100,000 residential units are to be built, as well as more than 200 schools, universities and training centers. 180 mosques and cultural centers are also noted.
Meeting in Miami
But the planners are obviously aware of the risk. It is written in red on a slide that “the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip depends on Hamas “demilitarizing and decommissioning all weapons and tunnels.” If security is guaranteed, implementation of the plan could begin within two months.
On Friday there was a meeting between Kushner, Witkoff and representatives from Egypt, Turkey and Qatar in Miami. Kushner has already had a career in commercial real estate and helped run his family’s real estate empire. He also worked as an advisor in Trump’s administration during his first term in office.
Since leaving the White House in 2021, Kushner has repositioned himself as an investor in a variety of companies. He founded Affinity Partners, a Miami-based private equity firm that has raised more than $3.5 billion, much of it from Middle East sovereign wealth funds.
Sources used:
- wsj.com: “US Pitches ‘Project Sunrise’ Plan to Turn Gaza Into High-Tech Metropolis” (English, paid)
- With material from the dpa news agency