From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Report: Trump envoy told Netanyahu US will delay rebuilding north Gaza until buffer zone is secured
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Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff has reportedly promised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US will postpone the process of rebuilding northern Gaza until security plans are agreed upon to ensure the security of Israeli communities near the border with the Strip.
Al-Araby Al Jadeed cites an American plan, to be funded by the US and Gulf countries, to prevent a reoccurrence of the Hamas terror group’s brutal October 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel that sparked over 15 months of fighting in Gaza.
The report claims that Washington wants to delay reconstruction in northern Gaza to make the area uninhabitable in the long term and to promote US President Donald Trump’s recent proposal that Jordan, Egypt and other Arab nations increase the number of Palestinian refugees they are accepting from the Strip to “just clean out” the war-torn area.
Israel began to allow Palestinians to return to northern Gaza this week, under a hostage-ceasefire deal with the Iran-backed terror group that came into effect last week.
Reconstruction of northern Gaza is set to begin in the final stage of the three-phase accord.
The Times of Israel Community.