Former President Joe Biden’s Gaza peace plan grossly underestimated the amount of time it would take to make conditions habitable enough for Palestinians to return home safely, U.S. Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff explained to reporters on Tuesday.
The Trump Administration is faced with the challenge of dealing with the previous administration’s flawed peace agreement crafted by the Biden Administration – including an absurdly over-optimistic reconstruction timetable, Witkoff said:
“Part of the problem is that it wasn’t such a wonderful agreement that was first signed. That was not dictated by the Trump Administration. We had nothing to do with it. Now, we’re working within that rubric, and we’re figuring things out.”
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“Phase three, the reconstruction, is not going to go the way that the agreement talks about, which is a five-year program. It’s physically impossible.”
“It is unfair to explain to the Palestinians that they might be back in five years. That is preposterous,” Witkoff said.
Biden’s plan actually estimated that Gaza reconstruction could be completed in as little as three years, PBS reports:
“In a third phase, the bodies of remaining hostages would be returned in exchange for a three-to five-year reconstruction plan for Gaza under international supervision.”
In reality, it could take 10-15 years of reconstruction before it’s safe for Palestinians to return home (as much as five times Biden’s most optimistic estimate), Witkoff said.
Witkoff described the utter devastation and dangerous conditions he witnessed when he visited Gaza:
- 30,000 unexploded munitions.
- Buildings that “could tip over at any moment.”
- No utilities, whatsoever: “No working water, electric, gas — nothing.
- “God knows what kind of disease.”
In the U.S., Americans wouldn’t be allowed to their city if it suffered even one percent of the damage he saw in Gaza, Witkoff said.
“There is nothing left there,” Witkoff reported.