Revealed: The Hamas-backed plan for Gaza’s future
Gaza’s Hamas-run municipal governments have published their first official reconstruction plan for the Gaza Strip, in the latest sign that the group intends to be a leading actor in the rebuilding of the territory.
In recent days, Hamas has re-emerged as the area’s main governing authority, deploying security forces across the Gaza Strip, despite suffering severe military losses during its 15-month war with Israel.
Hamas policemen in Gaza City following the ceasefire. Pic: Reuters
The 200-page document, titled “Gaza Phoenix” and shared with Sky News by an official in Gaza City’s Hamas-led local government, is the first comprehensive reconstruction plan to be published since the war began.
Gaza Phoenix sets out short, medium and long-term priorities for reconstruction and development in the territory, starting almost from scratch.
The immediate priorities include formalising displacement camps, repairing hospitals, clearing rubble and restoring law and order.
There are also much more ambitious long-term proposals, including a tourism-focused economy, a green belt and even Dubai-style artificial islands.
One section, on “wartime resilience”, suggests constructing “an underground connecter” between all Gaza cities – a proposal likely to anger Israel, which has sought to destroy Hamas’s underground tunnel network.
International donors would be very unlikely to directly fund the activities of Gaza‘s Hamas-led municipal governments, a person familiar with reconstruction efforts told Sky News.
But the project could be delivered by aid groups, the source said, which have historically coordinated with Gaza’s local administrations.
Foreign donors, like the Gulf States, see reconstruction as an opportunity to have influence in post-war Gaza. However, they will have reservations over putting billions of dollars into Gaza’s reconstruction without an internationally agreed and comprehensive plan for stability, as well as assurances of some Palestinian autonomy.
Displaced Palestinians attempt to return to their homes in northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
Under the terms of the ceasefire deal, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced from northern Gaza will be allowed to return from Sunday morning.
That makes reconstruction of the north particularly urgent, especially given the higher level of destruction there.
‘If they come, they will not find a place to live’
Dr Mohammad Salha, the director of North Gaza’s last remaining hospital, has not seen his wife and children since the war began.
He has been living in Al Awda Hospital, attempting to keep it running against all odds.
His family are staying in a tent in the south. Whenever it rains, he says, their tent fills with water.
“I want to bring them here, but I don’t know where to put them,” he says. “At least they have a tent. Here, there is nowhere to put a tent.”
Gaza’s government estimates that 14 of every 15 homes have been damaged, leaving the territory littered with an estimated 42 million tonnes of debris.
“If they come, they will not find a place to live,” says Maher Salem, 59, head of planning at Gaza City’s Hamas-led municipal government and a co-author of Gaza Phoenix.
Mr Salem says his team are trying to procure tents and caravans to serve as temporary shelters, and are preparing approximately 20 sites in and around Gaza City.
At least one new tent camp was seen in Gaza City on Thursday.
A new tent camp getting set up in the Shujaya neighbourhood of Gaza City. Pic: Reuters
The reconstruction plan identifies four main zones for larger tent camps, to serve as displacement centres during the reconstruction.
These areas have been chosen because of their proximity to medical centres and relatively low levels of groundwater pollution.
More than 95% of the Gaza Strip has groundwater containing levels of nitrates considered unsafe by the WHO, according to maps published in the document.
Israel has yet to relax import restrictions, hampering reconstruction
The war has also wrought severe damage on Gaza’s water distribution network, with aid groups saying that 70% of water sent through the pipes is currently lost due to leakage.
“We have more than 100,000 metres of pipes that are destroyed, but we haven’t even got 10 metres of pipes for repairs,” says Mr Salem, who also manages water infrastructure in Gaza City.
Israel has so far refused to allow the entry of metal pipes into Gaza, arguing that they could be used to construct rockets.
Similar restrictions on other such “dual use” items have been in place since the war began, and in many cases long before.
Discussions about relaxing these rules post-ceasefire are ongoing, Mr Salem says.
Buildings lie in ruin in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.
Pic: Reuters
He adds that officials are also trying to secure permission to import heavy machinery, generators and solar panels for the reconstruction effort.
“Everything is in relation to the availability of the materials. If you haven’t the materials, you can’t do the thing.”
Shaina Low, spokesperson for aid organisation Shelter Cluster, says the restrictions are affecting items necessary to build basic shelters, including timber and tent poles.
“There’s so much uncertainty, it makes it very difficult for the humanitarian sector to plan in advance,” she says.
‘Whoever is alive, they will come’
Of particular urgency are repairs to North Gaza’s hospitals. The region now has only one functioning hospital, Al Awda, after repeated raids and attacks by the Israeli military destroyed the Kamal Adwan and Beit Hanoun hospitals, and rendered the Indonesian and Sheikh Hamad hospitals out of service.
Al Awda has also suffered repeated attacks on its staff and buildings.
“A lot of equipment is destroyed,” says Dr Salha, the hospital’s director. “The whole hospital is without windows, without doors, without full ceilings.”
Many of the hospital’s surgeons have been killed or arrested, including Dr Adnan Al Bursh, whose unexplained death in Israeli custody was investigated by Sky News in November.
Despite now only having a single surgeon, Al Awda is preparing for a surge in patient numbers come Sunday, when displaced Palestinians are expected to begin their return to the north.
Dr Salha is also anticipating the arrival of “hundreds, maybe thousands” of wounded or starving people who have been in North Gaza but unable to safely reach the hospital.
“Whoever is alive, they will come,” he says.
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How Gaza will build back its schools
A relatively small, private hospital, Al Awda has never had an intensive care unit, an oxygen unit or incubator beds. In the past, Al Awda would refer critical patients and newborns to the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital.
“Now there is no Kamal Adwan Hospital,” says Dr Salha, “so we will have to do it.”
He has submitted a proposal for the construction of these advanced facilities, but this hinges on the relaxation of import restrictions.
Dr Salha thinks it will take three months before any other hospital in North Gaza is functioning. But Dr Marwan Sultan, the director of the Indonesian Hospital, thinks he can get his hospital up and running within a month.
Pic: Maxar
That too, however, will depend on what he is allowed to import.
“All four generators have been destroyed, along with both oxygen units,” says Dr Sultan.
“These are not available in Gaza, so we have to bring it from outside, but this has not been allowed up till now.”
Palestinians make their way past the rubble of destroyed houses and buildings in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip. Pic: Reuters
It will be months before schools can reopen
For those already living in the north of Gaza, the imminent arrival of the returnees poses its own problems.
Ahmed Abu Riziq lives with his wife and three young children in a rented flat in the north of Gaza City. He speaks to us from the building’s roof, which is littered with debris and shrapnel damage.
This week, his landlord is returning and he is being evicted.
Ahmed Abu Riziq, a schoolteacher in Gaza.
He has given up hope of finding another flat. Instead, he is simply trying to find some empty land on which to pitch a tent amidst the rubble.
The destruction of homes in Gaza, and the immense quantities of debris strewn through its streets, has prompted many families to take shelter in schools.
“For more than one year the students have not gone to school, and they haven’t had any chance to go to school because all the schools are used as shelters,” says Mr Salem.
Satellite analysis by aid group Education Cluster suggests that 88% of schools in Gaza have been damaged, including every single school in North Gaza.
Mr Abu Riziq, a schoolteacher, thinks it will take between six to 12 months before schools are able to reopen.
That is echoed in the Gaza Phoenix reconstruction plan, which does not anticipate a resumption of schooling within the next six months.
For the time being, the best scenario for Gaza’s children is to enrol in one of the territory’s growing number of tent schools.
In May last year, Mr Abu Riziq set up his own tent school using the leftover parachute from an aid drop. He has since expanded to five schools, providing education and psychological support to around 2,000 children aged five to 14.
He is optimistic that, with proper support and counselling, Gaza’s children will be able to overcome their traumas.
“Most of our students, when we first tell them to draw, they draw tanks, destroyed houses, how they suffered,” he says.
“But now, after many sessions, they draw gardens, sunflowers, a plane they are in, trees with apples that they can eat. They start to draw their future.”
Additional reporting by Michelle Inez Simon, visual investigations producer, and Olive Enokido-Lineham, OSINT producer.
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
An Israeli delegation is heading to Qatar for indirect talks with Hamas on a possible hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza.
The development comes ahead of a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump in Washington DC on Monday aimed at pushing forward peace efforts.
The US leader has been increasing pressure on the Israeli government and Hamas to secure a permanent ceasefire and an end to the 21-month-long war in Gaza.
Smoke rises in Gaza following an explosion. Pic: Reuters
Mr Trump said on Tuesday on social media that Israel had agreed “to the necessary conditions to finalise” a deal on a truce.
And Hamas, which runs the coastal Palestinian territory, said on Friday it has responded to the US-backed proposal in a “positive spirit”.
So what is in the plan?
The plan is for an initial 60-day ceasefire that would include a partial release of hostages held by the militant group in exchange for more humanitarian supplies being allowed into Gaza.
The proposed truce calls for talks on ending the war altogether.
The war in Gaza began after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage. Dozens of hostages have since been released or rescued by Israeli forces, while 50 remain in captivity, including about 30 who Israel believes are dead.
The proposal would reportedly see about half of the living hostages and about half of the dead hostages returned to Israel over 60 days, in five separate releases.
Eight living hostages would be freed on the first day and two released on the 50th day, according to an Arab diplomat from one of the mediating countries, it is reported.
Five dead hostages would be returned on the seventh day, five more on the 30th day and eight more on the 60th day.
That would leave 22 hostages still held in Gaza, 10 of them believed to be alive. It is not clear whether Israel or Hamas would determine who is to be released.
Hamas has sought guarantees that the initial truce would lead to a total end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
A Hamas official has said Mr Trump has guaranteed that the ceasefire will extend beyond 60 days if necessary to reach a peace deal, but there is no confirmation from the US of such a guarantee.
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Contractors allege colleagues ‘fired on Palestinians’
Possible challenges ahead
And in a sign of the potential challenges still facing the two sides, a Palestinian official from a militant group allied with Hamas said concerns remained.
The concerns were over humanitarian aid, passage through the Rafah crossing in southern Israel to Egypt and clarity over a timetable for Israeli troop withdrawals.
Hamas’s “positive” response to the proposal had slightly different wording on three issues around humanitarian aid, the status of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) inside Gaza and the language around guarantees beyond the 60-day ceasefire, a source with knowledge of the negotiations revealed.
But the source told Sky News: “Things are looking good.”
The Times of Israel reported Hamas has proposed three amendments to the proposed framework.
According to a source, Hamas wants the agreement to say that talks on a permanent ceasefire will continue until an agreement is reached; that aid will fully resume through mechanisms backed by the United Nations and other international aid organisations; and that the IDF withdraws to positions it maintained before the collapse of the previous ceasefire in March.
Mr Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that changes sought by Hamas to the ceasefire proposal were “not acceptable to Israel”.
However, his office said the delegation would still fly to Qatar to “continue efforts to secure the return of our hostages based on the Qatari proposal that Israel agreed to”.
Read more:
‘Two security workers injured after grenades thrown at aid site’
The man in the room acting as backchannel for Hamas in negotiations with US
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Another potential challenge is that Mr Netanyahu has repeatedly said Hamas must be disarmed, which is a demand the militant group has so far refused to discuss.
Hamas has said it is willing to free all the hostages in exchange for a full withdrawal of Israeli troops and an end to the war in Gaza.
Israel rejects that offer, saying it will agree to end the war if Hamas surrenders, disarms and goes into exile – something that the group refuses.
Previous negotiations have stalled over Hamas demands of guarantees that further negotiations would lead to the war’s end, while Mr Netanyahu has insisted Israel would resume fighting to ensure the group’s destruction.
They rose to their feet in ecstatic surprise, shouting “heydar, heydar” – a Shia victory chant.
This was the first public appearance of their supreme leader since Israel began attacking their country.
He emerged during evening prayers in his private compound. He said nothing but looked stern and resolute as he waved to the crowd.
He has spent the last weeks sequestered in a bunker, it is assumed, for his safety following numerous death threats from Israel and the US.
His re-emergence suggests a return to normality and a sense of defiance that we have witnessed here on the streets of Tehran too.
Earlier, we had filmed as men in black marched through the streets of the capital to the sound of mournful chants and the slow beat of drums, whipping their backs with metal flails.
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Defiance on streets of Tehran
This weekend they mark the Shia festival of Ashura as they have for 14 centuries. But this year has poignant significance for Iranians far more than most.
The devout remember the betrayal and death of Imam Hussein as if it happened yesterday. We filmed men and women weeping as they worshipped at the Imamzadeh Saleh Shrine in northern Tehran.
The armies of the Caliph Yazid killed the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad in the seventh-century Battle of Karbala.
Shiite Muslims mark the anniversary every year and reflect on the virtue it celebrates, of resistance against oppression and injustice.
But more so than ever in the wake of Israel and America’s attacks on their country.
The story is one of prevailing over adversity and deception. A sense of betrayal is keenly felt here among people and officials.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Many Iranians believe they were lured into pursuing diplomacy as part of a ruse by the US.
Iran believed it was making diplomatic progress in talks with America it hoped could lead to a deal. Then Israel launched its attacks and, instead of condemning them, the US joined in.
Death to Israel chants resounded outside the mosque in skies which were filled for 12 days with the sounds of Israeli jets. There is a renewed sense of defiance here.
One man told us: “The lesson to be learned from Hussein is not to give in to oppression even if it is the most powerful force in the world.”
A woman was dismissive about the US president. “I don’t think about Trump, nobody likes him. He always wants to attack too many countries.”
Pictures on billboards nearby draw a line between Imam Hussein’s story and current events. The seventh-century imam on horseback alongside images of modern missiles and drones from the present day.
Other huge signs remember the dead. Iran says almost 1,000 people were killed in the strikes, many of them women and children.
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Officially Iran is projecting defiance but not closing the door to diplomacy.
Government spokeswoman Dr Fatemeh Mohajerani told Sky News that Israel should not even think about attacking again.
“We are very strong in defence and as state officials have announced, this time Israel will receive an even stronger response compared to previous times,” she said.
“We hope that Israel will not make such a mistake.”
But there is also a hint of conciliation: Senior Iranian officials have told Sky News that back-channel efforts are under way to explore new talks with the US.
Israel had hoped its attacks could topple the Iranian leadership. That proved unfounded, the government is in control here.
For many Iranians, it seems quite the opposite happened – the 12-day war has brought them closer together.
To the sound of mournful chants and the slow beat of drums, they march, whipping their backs with metal flails.
It is an ancient ceremony going back almost 14 centuries – the Shia commemoration of Ashura.
But this year in particular has poignant significance for Iranians.
The devout remember the betrayal and death of the Imam Hussein as if it happened yesterday.
Iranians gather ahead of Ashura
We filmed men and women weep as they worshipped at the Imamzadeh Saleh Shrine in northern Tehran.
The grandson of the Prophet Muhammad was killed by the armies of the Caliph Yazid in the seventh century Battle of Karbala.
Shia Muslims mark the anniversary every year and reflect on the virtue it celebrates – of resistance against oppression and injustice. But more so than ever this year, in the wake of Israel and America’s attacks on their country.
The story is one of prevailing over adversity and deception. A sense of betrayal is keenly felt here by people and officials.
Men and women weeped as they worshipped at the Imamzadeh Saleh Shrine
Many Iranians believe they were lured into pursuing diplomacy as part of a ruse by the US.
Iran believed it was making diplomatic progress in talks with America, which it hoped could lead to a deal. Then Israel launched its attacks and, instead of condemning them, the US joined in.
“Death to Israel” chants resounded outside the mosque in skies that for 12 days were filled with the sounds of Israeli jets.
There is a renewed sense of defiance here.
One man told us: “The lesson to be learned from Hussein is not to give in to oppression, even if it is the most powerful force in the world.”
‘I don’t think about Trump. Nobody likes him,’ one woman tells Sky News
A woman was dismissive about the US president.
“I don’t think about Trump. Nobody likes him. He always wants to attack too many countries.”
Pictures on billboards nearby link Imam Hussein’s story and current events. They show the seventh century imam on horseback alongside images of modern missiles and drones from the present day.
Other huge signs remember the dead. Iran says almost 1,000 people were killed in the strikes, many of them women and children.
Officially Iran is projecting defiance, but not closing the door to diplomacy.
Government spokeswoman Dr Fatemeh Mohajerani told Sky News that Israel should not even think about attacking again.
“We are very strong in defence, and as state officials have announced, this time Israel will receive an even stronger response compared to previous times. We hope that Israel will not make such a mistake.”
Dr Fatemeh Mohajerani said it would be a mistake for Israel to attack again
But there is also a hint of conciliation. Senior Iranian officials have told Sky News back-channel efforts are under way to explore new talks with the US.
Israel had hoped its attacks could topple the Iranian leadership. Those hopes proved unfounded. The government is in control here.
For many Iranians it seems quite the opposite happened – the 12-day war has brought them closer together.
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