Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says that the Gaza Strip is a “real estate bonanza,” and that he is in talks with the Americans on how to divide it up the coastal enclave after the war. There is “a real estate bonanza” in Gaza that “pays for itself” and he has “already started negotiations with the Americans,” Hebrew media quotes the far-right minister saying at a real estate conference in Tel Aviv.
“We have poured a lot of money into this war. We have to see how we are dividing up the land in percentages,” Smotrich says, adding that “the demolition, the first stage in the city’s renewal, we have already done. Now we just need to build.” US President Donald Trump has at times spoken of his desire to turn the Gaza Strip into an American-controlled “Riviera” in a move that would see much of the Palestinian population encouraged to leave after the war.
Last month, the Washington Post reported that Trump administration was weighing a proposal for the postwar reconstruction of Gaza that would put the Strip under US control for a decade and pay roughly a quarter of its population to relocate, many of them permanently. Trump’s plans have been rejected by the Palestinians, the Arab world, and much of the international community. (Read More)