With the Trump administration’s 20-point plan reaching its one-year mark, members of the Board of Peace and the broader international community continue to grapple with how to rehabilitate Gaza in a way that improves the well-being of Palestinians, addresses Israel’s security needs, and promotes stability throughout the broader region.
After recently participating in an intensive online seminar with EcoPeace Middle East, I came to believe that environmental cooperation may offer an important framework for achieving these goals.
For some background, EcoPeace is an environmental peacebuilding organization in the Middle East composed of Israelis, Palestinians, and Jordanians. Its mission is to promote regional cooperation to protect shared natural resources and advance peace.
During the four-part online course, one theme repeatedly emerged: Environmental cooperation is not only ethically desirable but can also be practical when it creates tangible benefits for all parties involved.
When countries reside in the same general region, their environmental needs are inherently interconnected regardless of their politics or borders. The instructors explored the theories behind environmental cooperation, how the concept has been applied elsewhere in the region, and how it could potentially be applied to Gaza and the broader region.
The primary case study discussed during the seminar was the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), a planned infrastructure and trade network designed to connect India, the Middle East, and Europe through trade, energy, and digital infrastructure. By creating a more direct trade route between these regions, IMEC is intended to reduce transportation time and costs while facilitating greater economic connectivity and investment among participating countries.
The IMEC memorandum of understanding was signed in 2023 by India, the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the European Union, along with France, Germany, and Italy.
EcoPeace proposes expanding IMEC’s regional framework to incorporate Israel, Jordan, and a future Palestinian state through what it calls the “Peace Triangle.” Centered on Israel, Jordan, and Palestine, the proposal seeks to use greater economic interdependence to promote regional stability while making the broader IMEC corridor more viable.
EcoPeace envisions building its Peace Triangle around four pillars: geopolitical, economic, security, and environmental. EcoPeace argues that this framework can create a pathway toward the establishment of a Palestinian state and further integrate Israel into the region; that additional regional infrastructure can promote trade, employment, and joint economic projects; that greater interdependence can create shared interests among the parties; and that regional mechanisms for managing shared natural resources can enhance environmental cooperation, particularly around energy and water.
EcoPeace’s Peace Triangle seeks to advance these four pillars through three catalytic projects: renewable energy exports, an electrified rail network, and a regional water-energy exchange involving a proposed large-scale desalination plant in Gaza.
The latter project may be particularly important to rehabilitating Gaza in a way that not only addresses its devastating water shortage but also enhances Israel’s security and regional stability.
Gaza's water crisis
Gaza is currently experiencing a severe water crisis. According to UNICEF’s July 2026 mid-year report, nearly 90% of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, while approximately 82% of families are considered water insecure.
UNICEF also reports that up to 70% of people in Gaza cannot access even six liters of water per person per day for drinking and cooking, well below minimum emergency standards. These conditions leave Gaza’s population vulnerable not only to dehydration but also to waterborne diseases and other health risks associated with inadequate sanitation.
Yet Gaza’s water crisis has implications beyond the immediate humanitarian needs of its population. The destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure has contributed to widespread environmental contamination and increased public health risks. Because Gaza and Israel share a small and interconnected geographic border and sea, environmental contamination and infectious diseases in Gaza can also spread to Israel.
This is where EcoPeace’s proposed large-scale desalination plant in Gaza, as part of its Peace Triangle initiative, could help address these overlapping challenges. EcoPeace proposes building a desalination facility in Gaza capable of producing approximately 200 million cubic meters of water annually.
Rather than functioning solely as a Gaza-based humanitarian project, however, the proposal envisions the plant as part of a broader regional water-energy system in which desalinated water produced in Gaza could contribute to the water needs of Gaza, the West Bank, and Jordan.
Such a project would therefore provide benefits beyond simply increasing Gaza’s access to clean water. Increasing the availability of reliably treated water and rehabilitating sanitation infrastructure could reduce environmental contamination and lower the risk of waterborne disease spreading to Israel and the broader region.
At the same time, incorporating Gaza into a regional water-energy network could create tangible shared benefits among Palestinians, Israelis, and Jordanians, incentivizing them to maintain the infrastructure and political stability necessary for the system to function.
The proposed desalination plant could also have political and security implications. In order to prevent Hamas from reasserting its control over Gaza and posing a security threat to Israel, an alternative Palestinian leadership will need to fill the vacuum with a post-war vision.
Under EcoPeace’s Peace Triangle project, building a desalination plant with a non-Hamas Palestinian governing authority, such as a reformed Palestinian Authority, could provide it with an opportunity to demonstrate its ability to provide essential services to Gaza’s population while simultaneously creating economic and regional relationships that depend on continued stability.
Indeed, the infrastructure and regional interdependence that would come to fruition under the Peace Triangle project could create additional incentives for Palestinians, Israelis, Jordanians, and international actors to preserve the political and security conditions necessary for Gaza’s rehabilitation under new Palestinian leadership.
In other words, EcoPeace’s proposed desalination project is not simply an ethical endeavor because it would help provide Gazans with the safe and clean drinking water they need. It is also designed around the principle that environmental cooperation can create mutual benefits and interdependence among Palestinians, Israelis, and Jordanians. If each party has a tangible interest in maintaining the system, each also has a greater incentive to preserve the stability and cooperation necessary for it to succeed.
The Trump administration’s 20-point plan provides a broad framework for Gaza’s rehabilitation and regional peace, but translating broad objectives into sustainable outcomes requires concrete mechanisms for implementation.
What I took away from my experience with EcoPeace is that environmental cooperation may provide such a mechanism. By connecting Gaza’s environmental rehabilitation with regional energy, water, economic, and security interests, initiatives such as the Peace Triangle offer a model in which improving the lives of Palestinians, addressing Israeli security concerns, and promoting regional stability do not have to be treated as competing objectives. Instead, they can become mutually reinforcing goals built around shared interests and cooperation.
The writer is a Boston-based writer and former chair of Israel Policy Forum’s IPF Atid Steering Committee in Boston.