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Middle East|U.S. Plans Compounds to House Palestinians in Israeli-Held Half of Gaza
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/world/middleeast/us-compounds-palestinians-israel-gaza-strip.html
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The Trump administration is pushing for the rapid construction of a number of residential compounds to provide housing for Palestinians in Israeli-controlled parts of the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, an effort that is fraught with risks and potential pitfalls.
The compounds, or “Alternative Safe Communities,” as U.S. officials are calling them, will be concentrated in the eastern half of Gaza, currently controlled by Israel since a cease-fire took effect in October. Few of Gaza’s 2 million Palestinians remain there. Most are crammed in the Hamas-controlled part of the enclave where the United States and Israel are not yet allowing any reconstruction.
U.S. officials hope Palestinians will feel encouraged to move to the new compounds, drawn to the prospect of greater security, freedom from Hamas, job opportunities and a chance to rebuild their lives.
The vision of American officials involves the creation of a string of model compounds — more permanent than tent villages, but still made up of structures meant to be temporary. Each could provide housing for as many as 20,000 or 25,000 people alongside medical clinics and schools, U.S. officials and European diplomats say.
“There’s a practical issue: How do we get people into safe housing as soon as humanly possible?” Aryeh Lightstone, a senior Trump administration official who is leading the effort, said in an interview. “This is the easiest way to do that.”
In the short term, the plan could offer relief for thousands of Palestinians who have endured two years of war. In the long term, the proposal has raised questions about whether it could entrench a de facto partition of Gaza into Israeli and Hamas controlled zones.
