Sam Hamad
The New Arab / August 9, 2026
Israel’s ‘Green Rafah’ plan raises fears reconstruction could entrench Gaza’s division and create a new model of long-term Israeli control.
Israel has reportedly approved infrastructure work for a new residential zone in eastern Rafah, raising questions over whether reconstruction could entrench the military division of Gaza and create a new model of Israeli control over the enclave.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz quietly authorised work in what Israeli media has called “Green Rafah”, on the Israeli-controlled side of the Yellow Line, according to Israeli Army Radio.
The project is intended to house Palestinians outside Hamas control in an area of eastern Rafah that has been completely levelled and is currently empty.
But Daniel Levy, president of the US/Middle East Project and a former Israeli peace negotiator, told The New Arab that Green Rafah should not necessarily be seen as evidence of a single, settled Israeli blueprint for Gaza.
He argued that the ambiguity surrounding such projects allows Israel to keep several possible futures open, including tightly controlled Palestinian enclaves, prolonged occupation and, potentially, eventual Israeli resettlement.
“Both options are baked into whatever piecemeal measures are agreed,” Levy said.
According to Israeli Army Radio, infrastructure work will include excavation and connections to electricity, water and sewage systems, while Palestinian workers are undergoing Shin Bet security screening before being allowed into the area.
The zone would eventually come under the control of a multinational force, the report said.
Netanyahu’s office disputed parts of the account, saying Green Rafah was a UAE-backed pilot initiative already underway for several months and that infrastructure work would be supervised by the Israeli military.
The conflicting accounts add to uncertainty surrounding who will finance, administer and secure proposed reconstruction projects in Gaza.
Levy said that opacity was itself significant.
“The twilight grey zone nature of this is by design, it’s not a bug,” he said, describing the emerging arrangements as both “a business model and a smoke and mirrors model”.
He cautioned against assuming every proposed reconstruction project would ultimately materialise, arguing that limited initiatives can also allow Israel to create the impression that it is not exclusively obstructing Gaza’s reconstruction.
What future for Gaza ?
Green Rafah nevertheless raises wider questions over the future of the Yellow Line if housing and civilian infrastructure are established specifically within Israeli-controlled territory.
One possibility is the emergence of heavily controlled Palestinian enclaves, separated from Hamas and administered partly through international or Palestinian actors while Israel retains overriding security control.
Another, advocated openly by parts of Israel’s far right, would involve permanent Israeli control, ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and the eventual re-establishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza.
Levy said Israel had not reached a consensus on the latter, but argued that the current piecemeal approach need not close off either outcome.
The division within Israel, he argued, is less between occupation and Palestinian sovereignty than between competing visions for maintaining Israeli control.
“There is contestation between those for whom, yes, the goal is ethnic cleansing and resettlement, and those for whom ongoing occupation should be as cost-managed as possible for Israel.”
“A consensus of cruelty towards Palestinians exists. A consensus of resettling Gaza does not,” he added.
Constructing homes, utilities and security structures east of the Yellow Line could therefore give what is presented as a military division an increasingly permanent civilian and political character, while potentially tying access to reconstruction to living within Israeli-approved areas.
Yet the eventual outcome remains uncertain. Levy argued that while competing plans for what comes next remain contested, one element of Israel’s transformation of Gaza is already much further advanced.
“If you’re creating this green zone type thing, what do you have to do before you build it? You have to finish destroying everything,” he said.
“There can be a consensus of destruction. What is built in the wake of that destruction is still up for grabs. But for now, the only bit that’s implemented is the destruction.”
Sam Hamad is a historian and freelance writer and editor
