The Gaza “Piece” Plan: How a U.S.-Israeli Initiative Will Cement Partition Through “Safe Zones”

The recently announced U.S.-Israeli ceasefire plan, endorsed by the UN Security Council, is being sold as a pathway to peace. In reality, it is a blueprint for the permanent partition of Gaza, tapping into a well-worn colonial strategy of isolating, fragmenting, and subjugating an occupied population.

Since the October 10th ceasefire, a de facto territorial division has solidified. Gaza is now split into a “green zone” under direct Israeli military control and a “red zone”—a vast, blockaded area where the Palestinian population has been forcibly displaced and contained. Dividing them is an invisible but deadly “yellow line.” The Trump administration has signalled that reconstruction aid and international funding will be intentionally limited to the “green zone,” where plans for so-called “alternative safe communities” are being fast-tracked.

Despite reports that these plans were shelved due to public pressure, colleagues in the humanitarian field confirm that the first such community is still slated for construction in Rafah, southern Gaza, with a further ten planned along the “yellow line” and into the north. This is not an ad-hoc humanitarian effort; it is a deliberate strategy.

The Mechanics of Managed Dispossession

If these “safe communities” proceed, they will cement a deadly fragmentation. Their purpose is not humanitarian relief but the creation of zones of managed dispossession. Palestinians would be forced to undergo Israeli security screening and vetting to enter and receive basic services like food, water, and medical care. In return, they would be explicitly barred from returning to their homes in the now off-limits “red zone.” This is a recycled version of a long-standing Israeli objective. As a former UN official coordinating humanitarian operations in Palestine, I first heard this concept proposed by Israeli authorities under the initial, telling euphemism of “bubbles”—sealed areas where Palestinians would be “conditioned” to receive controlled assistance.

This is the grim reality of the so-called peace deal. It will not deliver peace; it will shatter Gaza and the prospect for Palestinian sovereignty into pieces. If anything, it is a “Gaza piece plan.”

International Legitimization of a Partition Plan

The UN Security Council’s recent vote has dangerously legitimized this framework by endorsing a “board of peace” to manage Gaza and an international stabilisation force (ISF) to provide security. But what are they securing? There is no agreed-upon peace to keep. According to maps I have seen, the ISF would be positioned along the “yellow line,” not to protect Palestinian civilians, but to secure the perimeter of these new camps, effectively becoming the gatekeepers for a partitioned territory.

Hamas has, unsurprisingly, rejected the resolution, as its provisions were not the outcome of a negotiated agreement but an imposed diktat. The Trump administration’s 20-point plan, attached as an annex, contains a trigger mechanism in point 17: “in the event Hamas delays or rejects this proposal, the above, including the scaled-up aid operations, will proceed in the terror-free areas handed over from the IDF to the ISF.” This clause ensures that the “alternative safe communities” can become the only authorized aid delivery centres, weaponizing humanitarian assistance to force compliance and prolonging the total blockade on the majority of Gazans trapped outside.

A Colonial Playbook, Revisited

The logic of this plan is an extension of the evacuation orders that have driven Palestinians from their homes over the past two years. Those who remain outside the “safe communities,” in the “red zone,” risk being labelled “Hamas supporters” by Israeli authorities. Under Israel’s warped interpretation of international law, this designation renders them ineligible for protection and subject to ongoing military operations, as we have already witnessed in recent days. The fate of these individuals remains conspicuously absent from official planning, while humanitarian organizations capable of saving lives are being systematically squeezed out by an Israeli registration process designed to stifle criticism and vet staff for political compliance.

This model of contained communities is not new; it is a page torn from the colonial playbook. The British created “new villages” in Malaya in the 1950s, the Americans created “strategic hamlets” in Vietnam in the 1960s, and the colonial authorities in Rhodesia created “protected villages” in the 1970s. In each case, civilian populations were coerced into camps, screened, and offered aid in a calculated effort to drain the sea of popular support for resistance movements. History shows that this strategy ultimately failed. Similarly, the South African apartheid regime’s bantustans—pseudo-independent homelands designed to concentrate and control the Black population—failed to prevent the collapse of that settler-colonial system.

A Monument to Impunity

In Gaza, this imposed “peace plan” will leave Israel’s occupation not only intact but emboldened. Tragically, the UNSC has endorsed a framework that flagrantly contradicts the provisional rulings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the occupied Palestinian territory. The ICJ has ordered Israel to prevent acts of genocide and ensure the provision of humanitarian aid. This plan does the opposite: it whitewashes a genocidal crime scene and creates a monument to impunity.

All of this unfolds during a so-called ceasefire, where Palestinians continue to be killed for crossing invisible lines drawn by an illegal occupation. The world may hail this phase as an end to the war, and states reluctant to sanction Israel are undoubtedly relieved to revive trade and reduce public scrutiny.

The Only Way Forward: Accountability and Self-Determination

Moving beyond this dangerous status quo requires the very accountability the U.S. and Israel have worked tirelessly to avoid: the full implementation of the ICJ’s rulings. While Western powers hollow out international legal institutions, new global political coalitions are urgently needed to demand the equal application of international law. At its most basic level, this requires the immediate and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to all Palestinians wherever they are in Gaza and a Palestinian-led reconstruction that ensures they are not perpetually condemned to bare survival in sealed camps.

The precedent set in Gaza will not be contained by the fences of its gated communities. It would further erode the very foundations of the so-called rules-based international order. The only just way forward is a return to the principle this entire process has so far ignored: the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to determine their own future, free from occupation, fragmentation, and managed dispossession.

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