Donald Trump IS a Businessman….
Israel DID tear the place up, eh?
Abvout the clean-up money…..
The United States has reportedly pressed Israel to assume responsibility for clearing the vast rubble left behind by more than two years of war in the Gaza Strip, a demand that could burden Jerusalem with a massive, multi-year engineering project costing upward of $1 billion.
According to a Thursday Ynet report, Washington has conveyed to Israel that it expects the country not only to finance the removal of debris across Gaza, but also to oversee the operation itself — a prerequisite for reconstruction that has yet to begin under the proposed postwar framework.
The Gaza Strip has been devastated during the war that erupted after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage. Israel launched a military campaign against Hamas in response, leading to widespread destruction across the enclave as fighting expanded on the ground and from the air.
A senior Israeli official cited by Ynet said Israel has, at least for now, agreed to the American request. Initial efforts would focus on a limited pilot project in the IDF-controlled southern city of Rafah, clearing a single neighborhood as a test case. The cost of that first phase alone is estimated to run into the tens or even hundreds of millions of shekels.
Beyond that, the senior official acknowledged, the price tag would escalate dramatically.
With Arab states and international donors signaling reluctance to fund debris removal, Israel could ultimately be required to clear the entirety of the Strip….
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Hamas working on dealing with giving up its weapons…
The head of Hamas abroad, Khaled Meshaal, is trying to convince the United States administration to follow the Palestinian group’s own “vision” on how to deal with disarmament and its military arsenal, a major sticking point in the second phase of the group’s two-month ceasefire with Israel.
Speaking on Al Jazeera Arabic’s Mawazine programme on Wednesday, Meshaal said Hamas aims to “create a situation with guarantees that war does not return between Gaza and the Israeli occupation”, which included the group potentially handing over its weapons, though it wants input on the process.
“As we approach the second phase, the challenge is upon us; there are some parties who want to impose their will on us as they wish. Like what the Israeli prime minister says – to take our weapons in any way, even by force. This is rejected by our people,” Meshaal said.
“We want to have a vision in which we have guarantees that these weapons are hidden, kept, not used, and not paraded. And we offered a long truce of seven or 10 years,” he added.
Meshaal outlined ideas to sustain the fragile ceasefire, which Israel has violated more than 700 times since it began, according to the Gaza Government Media Office, as the first phase, involving prisoner and captive exchanges, comes to an end.
Israel has not allowed the free flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, in violation of the truce’s terms, as hundreds of thousands of people are suffering the brunt of Storm Byron with only makeshift tents for shelter…..
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Time ‘running out’
Both Israel and Hamas face difficult concessions in the next stage of the deal. For Hamas, it means handing over weapons and power. For Israel, handing over security to an international stabilisation force.
And this is also why leaders on both sides may be hesitating, says retired General Israel Ziv, a former head of Israel’s military Operations Directorate.
“Israel and Hamas are sharing the same interests not to move so fast into the second stage,” he told me. “Hamas doesn’t want to lose control, and the Israeli side for political reasons also prefer to stay in Gaza, as nobody wants to explain to their base that they have to withdraw.”
He says Trump is the only one who can force the two sides forward, and that time is running out….
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