Atlantic: Trump's new plan for Gaza residents includes separate communities behind the "yellow line."

The magazine "The Atlantic" published a report prepared by assistant editor Hannah Kiros, stating that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has a new plan for the Gaza Strip. It wants to build housing projects for displaced persons, but administration officials disagree on the idea and how to implement it.

The report mentioned that Gaza has been divided since the ceasefire agreement last month, based on the yellow line that distinguishes between areas controlled by Hamas and those controlled by the Israeli occupation army. Initially, the line was unclear, but "Israel" has begun to define the separation more clearly with physical markers on the ground, leading some to express that the separation is becoming permanent.

U.S. officials refer to the new developments as "alternative safe communities," and this initiative is designed to create residential clusters for Gazans whose identities have been verified, but it will separate them from those living on the Hamas-controlled side of the yellow line, where the vast majority of Gaza's population resides.

Kiros based her information on statements from an Israeli official and another from the U.S. State Department familiar with the planning.

General Patrick Frank, the military commander coordinating the implementation of President Donald Trump's peace plan, recently told his colleagues that each population cluster should include a medical center, a school, an administrative building, and "temporary housing for about 25,000 people," according to an email reviewed by the writer that had not been previously published.

Frank emphasized the need to "move forward" with the plan, while a senior Trump administration official confirmed to the writer that at least one experimental alternative safe community will be built.

The first targeted site for development is likely to be in southern Gaza near Rafah, owned by Palestinians, as well as other potential sites, of which there are many.

The senior administration official could not immediately say whether the United States knows who owns the property on which the experimental community will be built.

The report stated that "only Palestinians who have received approval from the Shin Bet (Israeli Security Agency) will be allowed to move to these experimental communities," although it is still unclear what the approval criteria will be. However, the starting point will be the person's or their relatives' connection to Hamas, according to the Israeli official familiar with the plan.

Estimates suggest that less than 2 percent of Gaza's population of two million lives on the side of the line currently controlled by "Israel," and the first step in creating a new community in Gaza will involve removing unexploded ordnance and debris.

The U.S. State Department has awarded a contract to "Tetra Tech," a U.S.-based engineering company, which is expected to pave the way for the first "alternative safe community," according to the State Department official.

The company's CEO has attended meetings in Israel with others involved in implementing the "peace plan."

Additionally, two people familiar with the matter said that Trump's main envoys to the Middle East, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and close friend Steve Witkoff, support the housing initiative, as does the Israeli government. However, the plan has sparked fierce reactions from some officials in the State Department, as well as from foreign governments and relief organizations.

Objections are partly due to the restrictions that the new project may impose on registered Palestinians.

The Israeli military branch controlling humanitarian border crossings into Gaza has informed U.S. officials that civilians allowed to enter the project will not be permitted to cross into the half of Gaza controlled by Hamas.

U.S. aid experts in "Israel" are calling for "ensuring freedom of movement across the borders," according to the email reviewed by the magazine. A State Department official indicated that these communities are likely to become "places where people are effectively isolated, even though they won't use those terms."

Trump's 20-point plan calls for the disappearance of the yellow line and for an international force to take on stabilization tasks in the sector and for Hamas to surrender its weapons.

However, temporary lines often become permanent in Middle Eastern conflicts.

Those skeptical of the new plan argue that it prevents Palestinians from moving freely during a relatively peaceful time and risks creating a permanent division in the heart of Gaza.

An American official told "The Atlantic" that the program is an experiment to provide safe housing for Gaza residents outside Hamas control.

The idea of alternative safe communities, or something similar, has been established among senior U.S. and Israeli officials for some time.

The Israeli official stated that the plan for alternative safe communities was presented on the day the center was opened.

A U.S. official in Israel said that the plan for alternative safe communities emerged after the United States announced the establishment of a civil-military coordination