Project Sunrise: Inside The $112BN Plan To Rebuild Gaza As 'High Tech Metropolis'
US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have presented a $112 billion reconstruction plan to Gulf officials to build a “high-tech metropolis” atop the remains of Gaza, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The 32-page PowerPoint presentation labeled "sensitive" and titled "Project Sunrise" was developed over 45 days and reportedly presented to officials from Qatar, UAE, Egypt, and Turkiye.
The plan envisions turning the Gaza Strip into a "high-tech metropolis" over the next two decades with four phases of reconstruction beginning in southern Gaza. It also calls for turning Rafah into Gaza's new "administrative center," housing over 500,000 residents.
However, the plan does not specify where two million Palestinians would be sheltered during the reconstruction period. Israel's blockade of shelter materials has left Palestinians sheltering in bombed-out buildings and tattered tents.
In early December, a severe winter storm caused over a dozen fatalities, including three infants who succumbed to exposure, and led to the collapse of several buildings. About 95 percent of Gaza's tent camps have flooded due to the heavy rain.
Witkoff and Kushner's reconstruction plan also proposes monetizing 70 percent of Gaza's coastline beginning in year ten of the project, a move officials hope would generate over "$55 billion in long-run investment returns for prospective investors."
Both Witkoff and Kushner come from prominent Jewish real estate families rooted in New York’s property sector, with careers built around large-scale, high-value developments and deep financial ties to Gulf sovereign wealth funds.
According to the proposal, the US would provide $60 billion in grants and loan guarantees to back new debt, with expectations that the project would become self-financing as local industry and the broader economy recover. The World Bank would also have a role in the project.
The proposal is contingent on Hamas demilitarizing and decommissioning all weapons and tunnels. This precondition is highlighted in bold red type on the second page of the slide deck.
Hamas officials recently offered to "bury" the group's weapons and hand over power to a Palestinian governing body.
President Donald Trump shared an AI-generated demo for ‘Trump Gaza’ on Truth Social. The video depicts his “Riviera Plan” come to life. It involves the forced removal of the indigenous Palestinian population, U.S. ownership, and development of the land for “world people.” pic.twitter.com/j9mWl8muHD
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) February 26, 2025
However, Israel has blocked those efforts and refused the participation of nearly all Palestinian technocrats and bureaucrats who would be suited to govern Gaza.
Earlier this year, Trump proposed permanently relocating Gaza's Palestinian residents to transform the strip into a "Riviera of the Middle East," a plan rejected by several countries but welcomed by Israel's government.