Report: Post-War Plan Sees US Administering Gaza for at Least a Decade 

An Israeli soldier moves on top of an armored vehicle near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025. (AP)
An Israeli soldier moves on top of an armored vehicle near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025. (AP)
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Report: Post-War Plan Sees US Administering Gaza for at Least a Decade 

An Israeli soldier moves on top of an armored vehicle near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025. (AP)
An Israeli soldier moves on top of an armored vehicle near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025. (AP)

A post-war plan for Gaza is circulating within President Donald Trump's administration that would see the US administer the war-torn enclave for at least a decade, the relocation of Gaza's population and its rebuilding as a tourist resort and manufacturing hub, the Washington Post reported on Sunday.

The Washington Post said that according to a 38-page prospectus it had seen, Gaza's 2 million population would at least temporarily leave either through "voluntary" departures to another country or into restricted areas within the territory during reconstruction.

Reuters previously reported there is a proposal to build large-scale camps called "Humanitarian Transit Areas" inside - and possibly outside - Gaza to house the Palestinian population.

That plan carried the name of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, a controversial US-backed aid group.

Anyone who owns land would be offered a "digital token" in exchange for rights to redevelop their property, the Post reported, adding that each Palestinian who left would be provided with $5,000 in cash and subsidies to cover four years of rent. They would also be provided with a year of food, it added.

The Post said the plan is called the "Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust, or GREAT Trust," and was developed by the GHF.

GHF coordinates with the Israeli military and uses private US security and logistics companies to get food aid into Gaza. It is favored by the Trump administration and Israel to carry out humanitarian efforts in Gaza as opposed to the UN-led system which Israel says lets militants divert aid.

In early August, the UN said more than 1,000 people have been killed trying to receive aid in Gaza since the GHF began operating in May 2025, most of them shot by Israeli forces operating near GHF sites.

The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the plan to rebuild Gaza appears to fall in line with previous comments made by Trump.

On February 4, Trump first publicly said that the US should "take over" the war-battered enclave and rebuild it as "the Riviera of the Middle East" after resettling the Palestinian population elsewhere.

Trump's comments angered many Palestinians and humanitarian groups about the possible forced relocation from Gaza. Israeli forces pounded the suburbs of Gaza City overnight from the air and ground, destroying homes and driving more families out of the area.

The Israeli military has gradually escalated its operations around Gaza City over the past three weeks. On Friday it ended temporary pauses in the area that had allowed for aid deliveries, designating it a "dangerous combat zone".

On Sunday, the head of the World Food Program said Israel's designation would impact food access and put humanitarian aid workers in danger.

"It's going to limit the amount of food that they have access to," WFP executive director Cindy McCain said on CBS News' "Face the Nation" program.

A report released earlier this month by the global hunger monitor, Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), said that approximately 514,000 people - nearly a quarter of Gaza's population - are facing famine conditions in Gaza City and surrounding areas.

Israel has dismissed the IPC's findings as false and biased, saying it had based its survey on partial data largely provided by Hamas, which did not take into account a recent influx of food.



Israel Opens Criminal Probes Over Killings of Hind Rajab and Gaza Rescue Workers, Military Says

Hind Rajab. (Family handout/AFP/Getty Images)
Hind Rajab. (Family handout/AFP/Getty Images)
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Israel Opens Criminal Probes Over Killings of Hind Rajab and Gaza Rescue Workers, Military Says

Hind Rajab. (Family handout/AFP/Getty Images)
Hind Rajab. (Family handout/AFP/Getty Images)

Israel's military will open internal investigations over its troops' killings in Gaza of Palestinian girl Hind Rajab in January 2024 and 15 emergency and aid workers in March 2025, it said on Wednesday, although rights groups said such probes rarely lead to convictions.

The military said the investigation decisions followed probes by its Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism. It released decisions regarding five incidents involving the deaths of Palestinians. They included an examination ‌of the killings ‌of seven aid workers with the World ‌Central ⁠Kitchen charity in ⁠April 2024. On that incident, the military said there was "no reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct that would justify the opening of a criminal investigation."

"For more than a thousand days, the Israeli army has been conducting intensive combat across numerous fronts, carrying out a wide range of military missions ⁠in an exceptionally complex operational reality," the Israeli ‌military said.

"As part of the military's ‌obligations under international law and Israeli domestic law, the army ‌examines exceptional incidents that occurred during combat," the military said.

Israeli ‌rights groups say that criminal misconduct investigations into Israeli troops over the killing of Palestinians rarely lead to convictions.

"Nearly zero indictments are served relative to the number of complaints of soldiers and ‌commanders who commit offenses. In rare cases when commanders or soldiers are convicted, they receive ridiculously ⁠lenient ⁠sentences compared with the severity of the offense," a spokesperson for the Israeli rights organization Yesh Din said.

During Israel's offensive in response to an October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, Hind Rajab was pinned down in a car for hours, begging Palestinian medics over a mobile phone to send help, while her aunt, uncle and three cousins already lay dead.

When an ambulance finally arrived, contact with the girl and the rescuers themselves was lost. Twelve days later, the bodies of the girl, her relatives and two ambulance workers were recovered from the area.


Syria Arrests Assad-era Officer who Fled Austria after Conviction

A man walks past heavily-damaged and destroyed buildings in the Jobar suburb northeast of Damascus on August 12, 2026. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
A man walks past heavily-damaged and destroyed buildings in the Jobar suburb northeast of Damascus on August 12, 2026. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
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Syria Arrests Assad-era Officer who Fled Austria after Conviction

A man walks past heavily-damaged and destroyed buildings in the Jobar suburb northeast of Damascus on August 12, 2026. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
A man walks past heavily-damaged and destroyed buildings in the Jobar suburb northeast of Damascus on August 12, 2026. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)

Syrian security forces have arrested a former Assad-era security officer who fled Austria after being sentenced to eight years in prison for abusing detainees and returned to his hometown in southern Syria, state news agency SANA said on Tuesday night.

Lieutenant Colonel Musab Abu Rukba was arrested in the city of Nawa in Daraa province by internal security forces in coordination ⁠with the counter-terrorism ⁠department, SANA said, citing the security forces.

Abu Rukba had been convicted by a Vienna court last month of bodily harm, aggravated coercion and sexual assault against detained opponents of former President Bashar al-Assad while he headed the police’s criminal investigations department in the northern city of Raqqa more than a ⁠decade ago.

He had pleaded not guilty.

Reuters reported on Friday that Abu Rukba had left Austria while challenging his eight-year sentence on appeal and arrived in Nawa in early August, where his family held a reception to celebrate his return.

SANA said on Tuesday that Abu Rukba had entered Syria illegally after fleeing Austria and that authorities had tracked him down in Nawa. He had been referred to the relevant authorities to complete legal procedures ahead of prosecution, it said.

It was ⁠not immediately ⁠clear what charges Abu Rukba could face in Syria or whether Austria had requested his arrest or extradition.

A spokesperson for the Austrian court that convicted him told Reuters at the time that Abu Rukba had not been considered a flight risk before his trial because he had lived in Austria since 2014 and was seeking asylum there with his family.

He was not held in custody during the trial or subjected to other restrictions, and his departure from Austria did not breach Austrian laws or court orders while the appeals process remained underway, the spokesperson said.


Israel Says It Recovered Remains of Soldier Killed in Lebanon in 1982

Destruction is pictured in the village of Arnoun as seen from nearby Marjeyoun in southern Lebanon on August 11, 2026. (AFP)
Destruction is pictured in the village of Arnoun as seen from nearby Marjeyoun in southern Lebanon on August 11, 2026. (AFP)
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Israel Says It Recovered Remains of Soldier Killed in Lebanon in 1982

Destruction is pictured in the village of Arnoun as seen from nearby Marjeyoun in southern Lebanon on August 11, 2026. (AFP)
Destruction is pictured in the village of Arnoun as seen from nearby Marjeyoun in southern Lebanon on August 11, 2026. (AFP)

The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had repatriated the remains of Sgt First Class Yehuda Katz, a soldier killed in Lebanon 44 years ago, in a joint operation with the Mossad intelligence agency.

Katz was the last Israeli soldier declared missing in the Sultan Yacoub battle against Syrian forces in eastern Lebanon in 1982.

"His return to Israel was made possible through efforts based on accurate intelligence... that lasted more than four decades," the military said in a statement.

It is not clear where his body was found.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commended the security forces and said that "for many years, I approved numerous clandestine operations to locate the missing soldiers of Sultan Yacoub. I promised their families that we would never stop working to bring them home."

In a separate statement, President Isaac Herzog said that "the circle that remained an open and bleeding wound from the Battle of Sultan Yacoub is finally closed," and that he had kept a photograph of Yehuda Katz hanging in his office as "a daily reminder of our sacred duty to bring our sons home and leave no one behind".

Katz's remains were brought to Israel and identified at an institute for the identification of fallen soldiers under the military rabbinate, the military said.

Three Israeli soldiers had been missing for decades after the Sultan Yacoub battle. In 2019, the military announced the repatriation of the remains of Sgt First Class Zachariah Baumel, while in May 2025 it said it had recovered the body of Sgt First Class Tzvika Feldman "in the heart of Syria".