Gaza and the West Bank will be linked by high-speed rail through one of the world’s longest train tunnels if President Trump’s Middle East peace plan becomes reality.
The proposals, unveiled with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, map out a “contiguous territory” linked by tunnels and roads to create a future Palestinian state.
A map released as part of the plan shows the Gaza Strip connected to the West Bank by the tunnel. At about 25 miles, it would be the world’s fifth-longest rail tunnel. The longest is the 35-mile Gotthard Base Tunnel through the Swiss Alps.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said the plan would end the geographic separation of Palestinian areas. “It provides for a high-speed rail connection between Gaza and the West Bank,” he said.
Netanyahu said that the proposals mean Palestinians and Israelis need not be uprooted by the peace plan and joked about how the professional background of Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, the main architect of the plan, helped.
“Instead, it proposes innovative solutions whereby Israelis will be connected to Israel and whereby Palestinians will also be connected to one another,” he said. “It helps if you have these real estate people, you know?”
Elsewhere, bridges or tunnels are proposed to connect Palestinian areas in the West Bank to each other and link Israeli settlements to the rest of the country.
Connecting the different parcels of land, particularly Gaza to the West Bank, has long been seen as one of the major obstacles to finding peace.
