‘The Guardian’: US military planning for divided Gaza with ‘green zone’ secured by international and Israeli troops

The US is planning for the long-term division of Gaza into a “green zone” under Israeli and international military control, where reconstruction would start, and a “red zone” to be left in ruins.

Foreign forces will initially deploy alongside Israeli soldiers in the east of Gaza, leaving the devastated strip divided by the current Israeli-controlled “yellow line”, according to US military planning documents seen by ‘The Guardian’ and sources briefed on American plans.

The US military plans raise serious questions about Washington’s commitment to turning the ceasefire announced last month into an enduring political settlement with Palestinian rule across Gaza, which was promised by Donald Trump.

Plans for Gaza’s future have been shifting at a dizzying rate, reflecting a chaotic, improvised approach to resolving one of the world’s most complex and intractable conflicts and providing aid including food and shelter to 2 million Palestinians.

After weeks in which the US promoted reconstruction in the form of fenced-in camps for small groups of Palestinians, referred to as “alternative safe communities” (ASC), those plans were dropped this week, the US official said.

“That’s a snapshot of a concept that was put forth at a certain time,” the US official said. “They’ve already moved on from that.”

Humanitarian organisations who have repeatedly raised major concerns about the ASC model said on Friday they had yet to be notified of the change of plans.

Mediators have warned of a situation that is “not war but not peace” in a divided Gaza, with regular Israeli attacks, an entrenched occupation, no Palestinian self-rule and limited reconstruction of Palestinian homes and communities.

Yet even marking out a “green zone” in Gaza risks drawing comparisons with Iraq and Afghanistan, where the phrase became synonymous with US military failures.

In Baghdad and Kabul, the green zones were enclaves ringed by concrete blast barriers where western forces and their local allies retreated to escape the violence their mission had unleashed in the communities around them.

Trump’s 20-point plan commits to the demilitarisation of Palestinian factions in Gaza and an eventual Israeli withdrawal to a “security perimeter” carved out of Palestinian land. It would be facilitated by the ISF and allow rebuilding to begin “for the benefit of [Gaza’s] people”.

The need for reconstruction is urgent, with more than 80% of structures in Gaza damaged or destroyed in the war, including almost all schools and hospitals, according to UN data.

More than a month into the ceasefire, Israel continues to limit aid shipments into Gaza, including barring basic items, such as tent poles, that it classifies as “dual use” because it says they have the potential to be used for military purposes.

Nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are waiting for emergency shelter items and hundreds of thousands more are living in tents without access to basic services such as clean water. Almost all the population – more than 2 million people – are crowded into the red zone, a strip along the coast that covers less than half of Gaza’s surface area.

Here's what Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir writes about the Palestinian people and the “only solution” to the Gaza Strip problem.