By Pesha Magid and Nidal al-Mughrabi
JERUSALEM/CAIRO, April 10 (Reuters) – Donald Trump’s Board of Peace has received only a tiny fraction of the $17 billion pledged for Gaza, preventing the U.S. president from pushing ahead with his plan for the shattered Palestinian enclave’s future, sources told Reuters.
Ten days before U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran plunged the region into war, Trump hosted a conference in Washington that saw Gulf Arab states pledge billions for the governance and reconstruction of Gaza after a two-year pulverisation by Israel.
The plan envisages large-scale rebuilding of the coastal enclave after the disarmament of Palestinian militant group Hamas – whose attacks on Israel triggered the assault on Gaza – and the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
The funding pledges were also meant to pay for the activities of a nascent National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), a U.S.-backed group of Palestinian technocrats intended to assume control of Gaza from Hamas.
‘NO MONEY CURRENTLY AVAILABLE’
One of the sources, a person with direct knowledge of the peace board’s operations, said that out of ten countries who pledged funds, only three – the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and the U.S. itself – had contributed funding.
The source said funding so far was under $1 billion, but did not give more details. The Iran war “has affected everything,” exacerbating previous funding difficulties, the source said.
NCAG could not enter Gaza due to both funding and security issues, the source added. Even after a ceasefire was agreed last October, Israeli attacks have killed at least 700 people in Gaza according to health officials there, while militant attacks have killed four soldiers according to Israel.
The second source, a Palestinian official familiar with the matter, said the board informed Hamas and other Palestinian factions that NCAG is unable to enter Gaza right now due to a lack of funding.
“No money is currently available,” the official cited board envoy Nickolay Mladenovas as informing Palestinian groups.
Hamas has repeatedly said it is ready to hand over governance to NCAG, led by Ali Shaath, a former deputy minister with the Palestinian Authority, which currently exercises limited self-rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Shaath’s committee is meant to assume control of Gaza’s ministries and run its police force.
He and his 14 committee members have been cloistered in a hotel in Cairo under supervision by American and Egyptian handlers, said a diplomatic source.
Representatives for the Board of Peace and NCAG did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rehabilitation of Gaza, where four-fifths of buildings were destroyed in two years of Israeli bombardments, has been projected by global institutions to cost around $70 billion.
The stuttering plan for Gaza’s future echoes other ambitious initiatives by Trump, who has sought to project himself as the world’s peacemaker but has struggled to end the Ukraine war as he said he would and is seeing this week’s truce with Iran come under immediate severe strain.
DISARMAMENT TALKS
Egypt, which has been hosting the disarmament talks, invited Hamas for more meetings on Saturday, according to a source in the militant group.
The ceasefire halted full-blown war but left Israeli troops in control of a depopulated zone comprising well over half of Gaza, with Hamas in power in a narrow coastal strip.
Trump’s board has been leading negotiations with Hamas and other Palestinian factions on disarmament. Israel says Hamas must lay down arms before it pulls troops out of Gaza, Hamas says it will not comply without guarantees of Israel’s withdrawal and a halt to firing in Gaza.
The diplomatic source familiar with the disarmament talks said they remained in deadlock and feared Israel was looking for an excuse to relaunch a full-scale offensive on Gaza.
Israeli military officials have said they are preparing for a swift return to full-scale war if Hamas does not lay down its weapons.
The Gaza war began with Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s ensuing two-year campaign killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Gazan health authorities, and has spread famine and displaced most of the territory’s population.
(Reporting by Pesha Magid in Jerusalem and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; Editing by Rami Ayyub and Andrew Cawthorne)
Comments