Project Sunrise: US $112bn Gaza plan turning war into a real estate bonanza

US envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner have pitched a $112 billion worth of “Project Sunrise” for the development of the war-torn Gaza. The pitch, termed as "sensitive but unclassified,” had 32 pages of PowerPoint slides, with skyscrapers, luxury resorts, high-speed rail, AI-optimised smart grids- a real estate bonanza. The plan doesn't clarify where the 2 million Gazans will live during reconstruction, which nation or companies will fund the project, or what the return on investment will be.

The Project Sunrise

It was developed by Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff with help from Israeli firms and security officials within 45 days. The proposal was shown to officials from Egypt, Turkey and Qatar in Miami on Friday. The project, reportedly, will cost around $112.1 billion and will take 10 years. It plans to develop the Gaza Strip in three phases- removal of destroyed buildings, unexploded ordnance and Hamas’s tunnels- construction of permanent housing, medical facilities, schools and religious spaces- then the luxury beachfront properties, tech corridors and modern transportation hubs will be developed. Geographically, it will start in the South from Rafah, Khan Yunis, then the central camps and finally Gaza City. The United States is supposed to anchor 20 per cent of the fund, and then there will be funding from foreign government grants and sovereign debts.

Why is the Project a trap?

The project classically fits within the framework of a neo-colonial, extractive capitalism. Here, extraction replaces occupation. The projected plan is based on the demilitarisation and decommission of Hamas' weapons and its tunnel network.

“You are not going to convince anyone to invest money in Gaza if they believe another war is going to happen in two, three years,” said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

But the proposal skips some of the fundamental steps. Normally, any conflict resolution will follow these steps chronologically: cease fire, political settlements, re-establishment of governance and then reconstruction. But here it's a ceasefire, then demilitarisation and then reconstruction. Political security and sovereignty to be figured out later. For Hamas, which was formed to end the colonial occupation of Israel and establish a Palestinian state, this will be hard to swallow. Further, there is no plan for the 2 million people to live during the reconstruction of Gaza. The humanitarian aid is conditional on the political surrender, which is a form of coercion. Moreover, the proposal frames this as “Dubai in the Mediterranean”, tries to erase years of trauma and the history and tries to portray it as an underutilised 'real estate'. Palestinians are promised jobs later, not ownership. The rebuilding process starts with holding 2 million people hostage. The core contradiction is how does free economy works on occupied and unfree people and land.