The United Arab Emirates has drafted plans to build a compound to house thousands of displaced Palestinians in a part of the Gaza Strip under Israeli military control, according to a map seen by Reuters and people briefed on the plans.
The planning map shows where the "UAE Temporary Emirates Housing Complex" would be constructed near Rafah, once a city of a quarter of a million people but now almost completely destroyed and depopulated by Israeli forces.
Rafah, near the Egypt border, is where reconstruction of the Gaza Strip is expected to start under US President Donald Trump's plan for a durable peace in the densely populated coastal enclave after two years of devastating war.
Donors have been reluctant to commit funds to the plan, worried that disagreements over disarming Hamas militants could lead the parties back to full-scale conflict.
However there are doubts about the political viability of the UAE project, as most Palestinians could baulk at being housed in an Israeli-controlled zone while the vast majority of civilians live in Hamas-run areas of the enclave, diplomats said.
Trump's plan envisions the establishment of a US-led multinational mission for the strip based in southern Israel, where UAE officials have shared details of their plans to build temporary housing and provide basic services in Rafah, four diplomats briefed on the initiative said.
The map shows that the UAE housing would sit near the "yellow line" agreed under an October ceasefire to demarcate Israeli- and Hamas-controlled areas.
In response to questions, an Emirati official said the Gulf country "remains committed to scaling up its humanitarian efforts to support Palestinians in Gaza" without confirming or denying plans to build the temporary housing site.
One of the diplomats said the Israeli military had cleared a large area leading from the Mediterranean coast toward Rafah for temporary housing projects like the one the UAE was planning.
The diplomats said the Emirati initiative resembled a US proposal to build temporary housing for Palestinians in areas of the strip that are still controlled by Israel.
US officials initially described their plan as "Alternative Safe Communities" and more recently as "Planned Communities," the diplomats said.
A US official said the UAE was co-ordinating on its housing initiative with the United States, with the Board of Peace - a new global body established by Trump to resolve conflicts - and with a Palestinian committee that is to administer the Gaza Strip.
"We continue to be impressed with the UAE's efforts for bringing a better life for Gazans in Gaza," the official said.
US officials have hoped that building housing in the Israeli-controlled areas could generate momentum toward Hamas' disarmament, encouraging Gazans to leave Hamas-controlled zones and depriving the militant group of a civilian population.
The UAE, which established diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020 under a Trump-brokered accord, sees Hamas and other political Islamist groups as threats to Middle East stability.
The four diplomats doubted whether Palestinians would move in large numbers to areas under Israeli control and questioned whether the proposals risked a permanent division of the enclave.
But unlike the US initiative, the Emiratis had identified a site where no homes previously existed, the diplomats said.
The Israeli military controls about 53 per cent of the Gaza Strip, including its southernmost area that encompasses the ruined city of Rafah.
Hamas controls the rest of the territory, where nearly all of the enclave's two million Palestinians are living in crowded tent camps and amid the rubble of destroyed neighbourhoods.
