The area was rebuilt under the supervision of Israel and other countries, and the other half was left in ruins.

The United States plans to divide the Gaza Strip into two parts in the long term. Reconstruction will begin in the “Green Zone”, which is under Israeli and international military control, while the “Red Zone” will be left in ruins.

According to confirmed U.S. military planning documents, foreign forces will initially deploy alongside Israeli forces in eastern Gaza, leaving behind a devastated area divided by the “Yellow Line”, which is now controlled by Israel. guardian And the sources were informed about the US plans.

“Wouldn’t the ideal be to leave everything as it is? But that’s ambitious,” said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It takes time. It’s not easy.”

How the US plan will divide Gaza

The US military’s plan casts serious doubt on US efforts to turn the ceasefire announced last month into a permanent political agreement with the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, as President Donald Trump has promised.

Plans for Gaza’s future have been changing at a dizzying pace, reflecting a chaotic and improvised approach to resolving one of the world’s most complex and difficult conflicts and providing aid, including food and shelter, to 2 million Palestinians.

The same U.S. official said the U.S. pushed for weeks to rebuild in the form of fenced camps for small groups of Palestinians called “Alternative Security Communities” (ASCs), but the plan was abandoned last week.

“This is a snapshot of a concept that was floated at some point,” the U.S. official said, adding, “They have already left the idea behind.”

Humanitarian organizations, which have repeatedly raised serious concerns about the CSA model, said on Friday they had not yet been notified of the planned change.

Without a viable plan to build an international peacekeeping force, withdraw Israeli troops, and undertake major reconstruction, Gaza risks reaching a dead end after two years of devastating war.

Mediators have warned of a “not war but not peace” situation in divided Gaza, with regular Israeli attacks, a persistent occupation, no Palestinian autonomy and limited reconstruction of Palestinian homes and communities.

The creation of the International Stabilization Force (ISF) supports President Trump’s 20-point peace plan. The United States expects a U.N. Security Council resolution giving the force a formal mandate to be approved early next week, and expects specific details about the force’s involvement to be announced.

“The first step is to get (the draft resolution),” a U.S. official said. “Countries will not be willing to make firm commitments until they see an approved document.”

Just as President Trump has refused to provide funding for reconstruction, he has also ruled out sending U.S. troops to the area to pave the way for Israel’s withdrawal. “The United States wants to establish a vision, but it has made clear that it does not intend to pay for it,” said one diplomatic source.

Earlier this month, documents revealed that the U.S. Army Regional Command (Centcom) had developed a plan to deploy European troops, including hundreds of British, French and German soldiers, to the core of the ISF. guardian.

This will include up to 1,500 British infantry with experience in bomb disposal and military medicine, and up to 1,000 French soldiers responsible for road clearing and security.

The United States also wanted troops from Germany, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia to participate in field hospitals, logistics, and intelligence.

One source calls the plans “delusional.” After long stints in Iraq and Afghanistan, few European leaders are willing to risk the lives of soldiers in Gaza, despite promises to provide other types of support. Only Italy has openly offered a possible military contribution.

The documents were marked “unclassified,” suggesting that the United States did not consider these military plans to be all that sensitive, and within days they clearly clashed with reality.

U.S. officials defend the numbers in the document, saying they contain “numerous inaccuracies” and that the U.S. government never expected European forces to form the core of the ISF. He also added that plans for Gaza are progressing rapidly.

“It’s very dynamic. It’s very fluid,” the US official acknowledged. “There are only a few people who really understand this situation and are at the helm.”

Jordan is listed as potentially sending hundreds of light infantry and up to 3,000 police officers, although King Abdullah has explicitly ruled out sending troops on the grounds that the country is “too politically close” to Gaza.

More than half of Jordanians are of Palestinian descent, and agreeing to work with Israeli forces to protect the territory’s archaeological sites would pose a highly unpopular threat to Jordan’s national security.

Until Thursday, the U.S. military had been counting on significant military contributions from a generous and broad group called “NATO and its partners,” which includes countries in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

The U.S. “concept of operations” for ISF specifies that troops operate “only in the Green Zone.” The US expects the deployment to “start small” in a limited area with a few hundred soldiers, then gradually expand to reach a total force of 20,000 across the Strip.

It does not operate west of the Yellow Line, where Hamas is once again gaining control. “We have no intention of leaving (the Green Zone),” a US official said.

Another document lays out plans for foreign soldiers to guard intersections along Israel’s established Line of Actual Control after “integrating” with Israeli forces stationed along the line, a mission likely to alarm potential troop-contributing countries.

These countries are wary of being caught in the crossfire between Hamas and Israeli soldiers, and their borders are often a potential flashpoint. They also fear the ISF will generate accusations that it is supporting Israel’s occupation of Gaza.

According to the plan, the Israeli military will “consider the conditions for withdrawal” once international security is established, but no timeline has been set.

Gaza’s reunification is part of a process that “moves toward stabilization, lasting peace, and a transition to civilian rule,” U.S. officials said, but added that it was not possible to set a date.

President Trump’s 20-point plan calls for the creation of a new Palestinian police force as a “long-term internal security solution” for the Gaza Strip, but U.S. planners have assigned it only a limited role. The plan would initially add 200 new recruits, but would increase over a year to reach 3,000 to 4,000 agents, just one-fifth of the planned security deployment.

reconstruction

American military planners also see reconstruction within the “Green Zone” as part of a vague path toward Gaza reunification that would persuade Palestinian civilians to cross the Israeli Line of Control.

“As the situation progresses and the conditions are right for significant progress in reconstruction, Gazan civilians will begin to migrate and prosper in Gaza,” a U.S. official said. “People will say, ‘Hey, we want that,’ and it will develop in that direction. No one is talking about a military operation to force it.”

But even demarcating a “green zone” in Gaza risks inviting comparisons with Iraq and Afghanistan, where the phrase has become synonymous with American military failure.

In Baghdad and Kabul, green zones are enclaves surrounded by concrete air defense walls, into which Western forces and local allies have retreated to escape the violence the missions have provoked in surrounding communities.

After a two-year war deemed genocidal by a United Nations panel, the plan to use humanitarian aid to lure Gaza residents into Israeli-controlled territory is reminiscent of other disastrous U.S. policies in these conflicts.

About a decade before the Taliban took over Kabul, the United States claimed it was implementing a “government in a box” in southern Helmand to win civilian support. The province continued to be a rebel stronghold.

President Trump’s 20-point plan promises the demilitarization of Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip and the eventual withdrawal of Israel to a “security perimeter” separated from Palestinian territory. This will be facilitated by the ISF and will allow reconstruction to begin “in the interests of the people[of Gaza]”.

According to UN data, more than 80% of Gaza’s buildings have been damaged or destroyed in the war, including nearly all schools and hospitals, making the need for reconstruction urgent.

More than a month after the ceasefire began, Israel continues to restrict humanitarian aid shipments to Gaza. For example, basic items such as tent poles may be used for military purposes and are therefore classified as “dual-use” and therefore prohibited.

Nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are waiting for emergency supplies to reach shelters, and hundreds of thousands more are living in tents without access to basic services such as clean water. Almost the entire population of Gaza, more than 2 million people, have crammed into the Red Zone, a strip along the coast that covers less than half of Gaza’s total area.

Translated by Alberto Orfan