The former Palestinian government official chosen on Thursday to administer Gaza under a U.S.-backed deal has an ambitious plan, including pushing war debris into the Mediterranean Sea and rebuilding destroyed infrastructure within three years.
The appointment of Ali Shaath, the civil engineer and former deputy planning minister in the Palestinian Authority, marked the start of the next phase of U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to end Israel's genocidal war in Gaza.
Shaath will chair a group of 15 Palestinian technocrats tasked with governing the enclave that has been devastated by Israel's relentless military campaign.
Under Trump's plan, Israel has withdrawn from nearly half of Gaza, but its troops remain in control of the other half, a wasteland where nearly all buildings have been destroyed. Trump has floated controversial idea of turning Gaza into the "Riviera of the Middle East."
Shaath will face the uncertain task of rebuilding the territory's shattered infrastructure and clearing an estimated 68 million tons of rubble and unexploded ordnance even as Israel continues its attacks.
After past rounds of fighting with Israel, Palestinians in Gaza used war rubble as foundational material for the historic marina in Gaza City and for other projects. In an interview with a Palestinian radio station on Thursday, Shaath suggested a similar approach.
"If I brought bulldozers and pushed the rubble into the sea, and made new islands, new land, I can win new land for Gaza and at the same time clear the rubble," Shaath said, suggesting the debris could be removed in three years.
He said his immediate priority was the provision of urgent relief, including forging temporary housing for displaced Palestinians. His second priority would be rehabilitating "essential and vital infrastructure," he said, followed by reconstruction of homes and buildings.
"Gaza will return and be better than it used to be within seven years," he said.
Rebuilding Gaza
Shaath, born in 1958, is originally from Khan Younis in southern Gaza. He previously served as the deputy minister of planning in the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank, where he currently resides.
In that role and others, he oversaw the development of several industrial zones in the West Bank and Gaza. He holds a PhD in Civil Engineering from Queen's University Belfast.
It was unclear how Shaath's committee would proceed with rebuilding and gaining permissions for the import and use of heavy machinery and equipment – generally banned by Israel.
Shaath said the Palestinian committee's area of jurisdiction would begin with resistance group Hamas-controlled territory and gradually increase as Israel's military withdraws further, as called for in Trump's plan.
"Ultimately, the (committee's) authority will encompass the entire Gaza Strip – 365 square kilometres – from the sea to the eastern border," Shaath said in the radio interview.
Spport from Hamas and Abbas
The formation of Shaath's committee has won support from Hamas, which is holding talks on Gaza's future with other Palestinian factions in Cairo.
Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said the "ball is now in the court of the mediators, the American guarantor and the international community to empower the committee."
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas voiced support for the committee, which he said would run Gaza through a "transitional phase."
"We reaffirm the importance of linking the institutions of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza, and avoiding the establishment of administrative, legal and security systems that entrench duality and division," Abbas said in a statement published on Thursday by the official WAFA news agency.
Hamas and Israel agreed in October to Trump's phased plan, which included a complete cease-fire, the exchange of hostages living and deceased for Palestinian prisoners, and a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Israel has killed more than 71,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, and injured over 171,000 others since October 2023.
The U.S.-backed deal has been shaken by issues including continuing Israeli airstrikes that have killed hundreds in Gaza, and Israeli delays in reopening the enclave's border crossing with Egypt.