Ali Shaat, a former Palestinian government official elected to govern Gaza under a United States-backed deal, has an ambitious plan that includes pushing the war ruins into the Mediterranean Sea and rebuilding the destroyed infrastructure within three years.
The appointment of the civil engineer and former deputy planning minister on Thursday marked the beginning of the next phase of US President Donald Trump's plan to end Israel's war in Gaza.
Shaat will chair a group of 15 Palestinian technocrats tasked with running the Palestinian enclave after years of rule by Hamas militants.
Under Trump's plan, Israel withdrew from almost half of Gaza, but Israeli troops still control the other half - a wasteland where almost all buildings have been destroyed. Trump has mentioned the possibility of Gaza becoming the "Riviera of the Middle East."
Shaata faces the uncertain task of rebuilding the territory's destroyed infrastructure and removing an estimated 68 million tons of rubble and unexploded ordnance, as Israel and Hamas continue to exchange fire.
"If I brought bulldozers and pushed rubble into the sea, and created new islands, new land, I could get new land for Gaza and at the same time clear the rubble," Shaat said.
After previous conflicts with Israel, Palestinians in Gaza have used war rubble as the base material for a historic marina in Gaza City and other projects. In an interview with a Palestinian radio station on Thursday, Shaat hinted at a similar approach.
“If I brought bulldozers and pushed the rubble into the sea, and created new islands, new land, I could get new land for Gaza and clear the rubble at the same time,” Shaat said, suggesting that the waste could be removed in three years.
He said his immediate priority was to provide emergency relief, including temporary housing for displaced Palestinians. His second priority would be to rehabilitate “key and vital infrastructure,” he said, followed by rebuilding homes and buildings.
“Gaza will come back and be better than it was within seven years,” he said.
According to a 2024 United Nations report, rebuilding destroyed homes in Gaza will take at least until 2040, but could take decades.
Shaat, born in 1958, is originally from Khan Yunis in southern Gaza. He previously served as deputy minister of planning in the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank, where he currently lives.
In this and other positions, he oversaw the development of several industrial zones in the West Bank and Gaza. He holds a PhD in civil engineering from Queen's University, Belfast.
Shaat's optimistic estimate of the deadline for rebuilding Gaza will almost certainly face challenges as mediators try to agree terms on the disarmament of Hamas, which refuses to give up its weapons, and the deployment of peacekeepers in the enclave.
It is not clear how Shaat's committee would approach reconstruction and how it would obtain permits for the import and use of heavy machinery and equipment - which Israel largely bans.
Israel, which cites security reasons when restricting the entry of such equipment into Gaza, did not respond to Reuters requests for comment on Shaat's appointment and plans.
Shaat said the Palestinian committee's area of jurisdiction would begin in Hamas-controlled territory and gradually expand as the Israeli military withdraws further, as envisioned by the Trump plan.
"Eventually, (the committee's) authority will encompass the entire Gaza Strip - 365 square kilometers - from the sea to the eastern border," Shaat said in a radio interview.
Shaat, born in 1958, is originally from Khan Yunis in southern Gaza. He previously served as deputy minister of planning in the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank, where he currently lives.
The formation of the Shaat Committee has received support from Hamas, which is holding talks in Cairo on the future of Gaza with other Palestinian factions.
Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said that "the ball is now in the court of the mediator, the American guarantor and the international community to empower the committee."
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose government has limited influence in the West Bank, has expressed support for the committee, which he said would guide Gaza through a "transitional phase."
"We reaffirm the importance of connecting the institutions of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza, and avoiding the establishment of administrative, legal and security systems that entrench duality and division," Abbas said in a statement carried by the official WAFA news agency on Thursday.
Israel and Hamas agreed in October to Trump's phased plan, which included a complete ceasefire, the exchange of live and deceased hostages for Palestinian prisoners, and a sharp increase in humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza.
The agreement has been rocked by issues including Israeli airstrikes that have killed hundreds of people in Gaza, the failure to recover the remains of the last Israeli hostage, and Israeli delays in reopening Gaza's border crossing with Egypt.
Since October, when a fragile ceasefire came into effect, more than 400 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers have been reported killed.
Seven people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the central Gaza Strip yesterday, including a senior member of Hamas' armed wing, a Hamas source told Reuters.
The Israeli military and Hamas did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the incident. A Hamas source said that among those killed was Mohammed Al-Holy, the local commander of the group's armed wing in Deir el-Balah.
Health officials said a 16-year-old child was among the remaining six dead.
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