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What Future Awaits Gaza If Not Trump’s ‘Riviera’ Idea?

Rafah, Gaza, on Jan. 20.Photographer: Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg

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By Ethan Bronner and Sam Dagher

February 24, 2025 at 9:11 AM UTC

Updated on

February 24, 2025 at 4:30 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the US government take over a depopulated Gaza Strip and turn it into a holiday resort was met with alarm in neighboring Arab countries.

Aware that Trump’s plan risks landing them with some 2 million Palestinian refugees, the governments of Egypt and Jordan have been working, along with other Arab states, on their own plan to rebuild Gaza, which has been devastated by a year and a half of war.