On 14th October a leaked United States military planning documents showed a proposal to split Gaza permanently, into a “green zone” under Israeli and international troop control for reconstruction, and a “red zone” that would remain mostly abandoned and in ruins.
This plan of the US government implies that over 2 million Palestinians currently displaced by the 2023–2025 conflict would remain in the red zone, effectively segregated from reconstruction efforts, and seeing this situation Critics resemble the divide to how the past US occupations like Iraq and Afghanistan looked like.
Whilst considering the green zone, Foreign forces, including possible European peacekeeping contingent troops, would operate alongside Israeli forces to reinhabit the region, by serving it as the hub for reconstruction, governance, and limited humanitarian resettlement.
After the leaked proposal came in front of the international community, various human rights organizations have shown severe backlash while Arab states and other observant nations say that these plans mirror historical patterns of occupation, control, and demographic division.
This proposal comes from the US Department of Defence, the Pentagon that for obvious reasons favours the state of Israel. As part of the countries helping reinhabit the green zone, the proposal cited France, Italy, and Germany as potential contributors to an international peacekeeping contingent, while both the Palestinian authority and Hamas strongly condemned the plan, calling it “a new form of colonial partition.”
Representing the possibly only multilateral organization in the world; The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres voiced his concern by urging that Gaza’s “territorial integrity must not be compromised”, however this is counterargued by the United States as its objectives are to prevent renewed militant buildup and maintain postwar stability through strict territorial control, whereby According to U.S. defense sources, the plan aims to create a “sustainable peace architecture” where “reconstruction occurs in secure zones.”
In essence critics have argued how this disguises a long-term occupation strategy and effectively erases Palestinian sovereignty by turning Gaza into a quasi-permanent security enclave. As a result of these implications the green zone would be secured by a multinational stabilization force, including U.S., Israeli, and select European troops, whereas the red zone would remain under restricted access, with drones and surveillance ensuring that “no hostile actors reestablish presence.” Reconstruction aid and development projects would be confined to only the green zone, effectively making it a controlled reconstruction area, violating humanitarian law, as this situation prevents displaced civilians from returning to their homes.
