The reconstruction of Gaza risks being a rapid, top-down and externally driven process that fails to acknowledge existing, endogenous plans, and sidelines local and regional expertise. Short-term, externally oriented planning approaches also tend to downplay consideration of, and investment in, longer-term issues. Key among these is disaster risk reduction, including climate change adaptation. As a counterpoint to these tendencies, in this paper we highlight three existing urban development and reconstruction plans. None are perfect, but each provides useful lessons. Two are focused on Gaza: the Connected Gaza initiative of 2016 was led by Gazan private sector perspectives to present an integrated regional vision and land-use plan emphasizing local participation; Egypt’s plan for Gaza reconstruction, proposed in 2025, also emphasizes designing for Gazan residents. Both remain propositions. The third, the Antakya/Hatay earthquake reconstruction plan, Türkiye, is an example of a deployed reconstruction plan, endogenous to the Middle East and North Africa Region, that similarly emphasizes local participation and could provide lessons for planning Gaza’s reconstruction.
Abdelhamid et al. (2026) studied this question.