Ex-CIA Chief David Petraeus Briefs Officials in Israel Overseeing "New Gaza"

Petraeus, who was a major proponent of biometric gated communities in counterinsurgency, now works for KKR whose portfolio includes companies that have technology and defense interests in Gaza.

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2025/09/30: Gen David Petraeus, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States, attends a ceremony at the Warsaw Security Forum that awards Jens Stoltenberg as a Knight of Freedom on September 9, 2025. (Photo by Dominika Zarzycka/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Former CIA Director David Petraeus—one of the godfathers of the modern doctrine of counterinsurgency warfare—last week visited the U.S.-military run coordination center established in southern Israel to oversee the so-called ceasefire in Gaza, multiple sources from the diplomatic community told Drop Site News.

In his remarks at the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) in Kiryat Gat, Petraeus praised Israel’s shift to clearing, holding, and rebuilding—a change from his previous criticism that Israeli forces were not implementing lessons from the U.S. counter-insurgency operations in Iraq, in particular the creation of “gated communities.”

One week prior to Petraeus’s visit, the U.S. Army presented the CMCC with plans for a “Gaza First Planned Community” in Rafah, as first reported by Drop Site. The residential compound would house up to 25,000 Palestinians in an area under full Israeli military control and would include biometric entry, identity checks, reeducation programs, and controls over aid and housing.

According to two sources with knowledge of the daily workings of the CMCC, the “Gaza First Planned Community” is intended to function as a pilot project—the first known step in the overall reconstruction plan of a “New Gaza.” The compound will be funded by the UAE, according to The Guardian.

Petraeus’s January 21 appearance at the CMCC coincided with President Donald Trump’s inauguration of the so-called Board of Peace the following day at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. At the ceremony, Trump said he was “committed to ensuring Gaza is demilitarized, properly governed and beautifully rebuilt,” adding: “I’m a real estate person at heart and it’s all about location. And I said, look at this location on the sea, look at this beautiful piece of property.” Trump was followed by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who listed among the priorities for the coming 100 days a “Trump economic development plan to rebuild and energize Gaza.” There will also be a process to “synthesize the security and governance frameworks to attract and facilitate these investments,” Kushner said.

In his remarks to the CMCC, Petraeus compared the 2007 U.S. troop surge in Iraq to the military operation in Gaza. Petraeus, who presided over a massive escalation of U.S. troops during the occupation of Iraq and the arming of local militias in what became a brutal sectarian civil war, is the former commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). He also dramatically expanded night raids and CIA and Special Operations missions inside Afghanistan. He was a key player in the expansion of U.S. covert warfare in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East and Africa before President Barack Obama installed him as CIA director.

Apart from promoting the implementation of gated communities based on his history in Iraq and Afghanistan, Petraeus is likely taking a special interest in Gaza because of the business opportunities Trump appears to be selling. Soon after his resignation from the CIA in 2012, Petraeus began work for Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), a powerful U.S. private-equity and investment company. Petraeus is currently a partner at KKR, chairman of the KKR Global Institute, and chairman of KKR Middle East, which has offices in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Petraeus also used his CMCC address to highlight the field manual for counterinsurgency that he developed at the end of 2006. That manual (which is available here) “establishes doctrine (fundamental principles) for military operations in a counterinsurgency (COIN) environment.” In it, Petraeus writes “Not all Islamic insurgents or terrorists are fighting for a global revolution. Some are pursuing regional goals, such as establishing a Sunni Arab-dominated Iraq or replacing Israel with an Arab Palestinian state.”

Petraeus also took time to praise the CMCC’s efforts in coordinating humanitarian aid into Gaza since a ceasefire deal went into effect in October, despite the fact that Israel has completely blocked essential items, such as caravans and other shelter items, and banned 37 aid organizations from operating in Gaza. A number of European countries even stopped sending personnel to the CMCC last month saying it has failed to increase aid flows, according to Reuters.

The CMCC was created by CENTCOM one week after the October 2025 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas went into effect. It includes representatives from more than 50 countries and international organizations, and is tasked with coordinating aid, monitoring the ceasefire, and planning reconstruction. The CMCC is headed by Lieutenant General Patrick Frank, who served under Petraeus in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Petraeus has long argued that lessons from the U.S. troop surge in Iraq could guide Israeli operations. Writing in Foreign Affairs in June 2024, he argued that Israel was repeating U.S. mistakes—but could also replicate U.S. “successes,” particularly the counterinsurgency strategy adopted in Iraq after 2007 that he oversaw. Central to Petraeus’s argument is the creation of gated communities with biometric entry points, identity cards, and constant patrols. In an interview with Al Majalla in October he said: “You clear every building, floor, room, cellar, and plug every tunnel entrance. … As long as you’ve found all the tunnel entrances and have a good entry control point. Then you have biometric ID cards that allow people who live in that area to return and access better shelters near their homes, which are largely damaged or destroyed.”

Speaking on the sidelines of the Institute for National Security Studies conference in Tel Aviv in March 2024, Petraeus told the Times of Israel that Israel should pivot to a counterinsurgency approach: “The foundational concepts of counterinsurgency are that you clear an area, you hold it, and you hold it in a very significant manner…You wall it off. You create gated communities, as we call it, 12 or 13 of them in Fallujah alone. You use biometric ID cards because you’re trying to separate the enemy, the extremists, from the people. That’s the fundamental idea.”

Like Petraeus’s gated-community model, the “Gaza First Planned Community” envisions implementing biometric screening to regulate entry. The CMCC presentation on the housing compound described systems that cross-reference applicants against security databases as a condition for access to housing and services. The advancement of technological capacity in counter-insurgency operations is something that Petraeus recently referred to as “Software-Defined Warfare.”

Petraeus resigned as CIA director in November 2012, amid a public scandal over an extramarital affair with his biographer, during which he shared classified materials with her. He later pled guilty to a federal misdemeanor charge that he mishandled classified information.

Soon after his resignation, Petraeus began work for KKR whose portfolio includes companies that have technology and defense interests in Gaza. In 2017, KKR acquired a majority stake in Optiv, which maintains strategic partnerships with the Israeli cyber-security industry. In May 2022, KKR led a $200 million funding round for Sempris, an identity driven cyber security company founded by former Israeli intelligence officials. In 2023, KKR acquired Circor, which is a supplier to the aerospace and defense markets. KKR has also invested in Global Technical Realty, a secure underground data centre in Petah Tikvah, Israel.

KKR has further links with Israel through their ownership of Axel Springer, a German media and technology company which has been accused of profiting from West Bank settlements through the Israeli company Yad2, which it owns. In December 2024, Yad2 ran an advertisement in an Israeli financial newspaper, The Marker, with the slogan “From the river to the sea”, with dropped pins across the entirety of historic Palestine, indicating real estate opportunities. The ad read: “Yad2 helps you look ahead and build a future in your next home in Israel.”

Amjad Shawa, the head of the Palestinian NGO network, speaking to Drop Site from Gaza City, criticized the presentation Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner gave at Davos, saying it “was not consulted with any Palestinian, whether civil society, Palestinian Authority, or Palestinian private sector.” He added, “It is just a beautiful photo designed by AI that does not reflect reality. It doesn’t deal with the recent situation, it is just dealing with construction here and there. It is not talking about political horizons, social cohesion, about order, about different issues important to Palestinians. Who will own this? Will we the Palestinians own this? Or others will own it and we will serve it as Palestinians?”

In fact, Palestinian energy resources may be under consideration as the financial underpinning for Gaza’s reconstruction. Under this model, the undeveloped Gaza Marine field, estimated at one trillion cubic feet of natural gas, would be monetized to support reconstruction.

Both British prime minister Tony Blair—who is named on the executive board of the Board of Peace—and Petraeus have strong ties to the UAE that converge around energy interests. Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala, acquired a 22% stake in Israel’s Tamar offshore gas field in December 2021. Blair has been a paid advisor for Mubadala. KKR, together with Blackrock, held a $4 billion investment in the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and has a minority stake in ADNOC Gas Pipeline Assets, which has the technical expertise required for offshore gas exploration and extraction, and to manage infrastructure, such as pipelines or LNG terminals, and handle commercial gas sales.

In Iraq, Petraus gained experience in financing smaller scale reconstruction projects with redirected state resources. An Iraq Development Fund was created to channel Iraqi resources to reconstruction. In 2007, as Petraeus was leading U.S. forces in Iraq, he reoriented captured Iraqi funds into a counterinsurgency tool through the Commanders Emergency Response Program (CERP). The approach has been outlined in a U.S. military manual called “Commanders Guide to Money as a Weapons System.”

The exploration of Gaza’s gas would fit into the economic and energy cooperation between Israel and the UAE under the Abraham Accords. In 2025, a formal UAE–Israel energy cooperation memorandum of understanding was signed, outlining gas sector cooperation. UAE involvement in Gaza gas would further position it as a regional energy hub linking the Gulf’s capital and infrastructure with Eastern Mediterranean resources and European markets.

Shawa contended that “investors are most welcome,” but they have to “accept the rules.” The rules are that Gaza must be rebuilt according to the Palestinian perspective, “not according to their perspective.”

Petraeus’s visit is part of what is sure to be a convergence of parties looking for involvement in Trump’s plans in Gaza, where Palestinians would remain relegated to the status of inmates or future labor, but not the drivers of their own destiny.

“Trump’s plan for Gaza follows the tried-and-tested model of North American genocide, in which survivors are confined to Indigenous reservations. In this model, Palestinians’ racialized bodies are viewed as only needing to be fed and watered, stripped of any subjective depth,” Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, a surgeon who has worked extensively in Gaza, is the chair in conflict medicine at the American University of Beirut and rector of the University of Glasgow, told Drop Site.

“The map of the proposed ‘New Gaza’ presented by Jared Kushner in Davos looks exactly like the internal architecture of a prison. Rather than Gaza functioning as an open-air prison, the plan would turn it into a closed prison, where the inmates—Palestinians—are micromanaged.”