Trump’s Peace Council received only a small fraction of the US$17 billion promised for Gaza, hindering the U.S. president from moving forward with his plan for the Palestinian enclave, according to sources speaking to Reuters.
Ten days before the Israeli and American attacks against Iran would plunge the region into war, Trump held a conference in Washington, at which Gulf Arab states pledged billions for governance and reconstruction of Gaza after two years of destruction by Israel.
The plan envisages large-scale reconstruction of the coastal enclave after the disarmament of the Palestinian militant group Hamas — whose attacks on Israel triggered the recent Gaza conflict — and the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
The funding promises were also meant to support the activities of a National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), a group in formation, backed by the United States and composed of Palestinian technocrats who intended to take Gaza’s governance from Hamas.
The Peace Council denied, in a statement published on social media this Friday following Reuters’ publication of the story, that it was facing funding problems.
‘The Peace Council is a lean, execution-focused organization that mobilizes capital as needed. There are no funding constraints. To date, all funding requests have been met immediately and in full,’ it stated.
NCAG representatives did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
One of the sources, a person with direct knowledge of the council’s operations, said that of ten countries that pledged funds, only three — the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and the United States themselves — had contributed funds.
According to this source, who did not go into details, funding was less than US$1 billion so far. The Iran war ‘affected everything,’ exacerbating the earlier financing difficulties, the source said.
The NCAG could not enter Gaza due to both funding and security concerns, the source added. Even after the ceasefire agreement in October, Israeli strikes killed at least 700 people in Gaza, according to local health authorities, while militant attacks killed four soldiers, according to Israel.
A second source, a Palestinian official familiar with the matter, said the council informed Hamas and other Palestinian factions that the NCAG cannot enter Gaza at the moment due to lack of funding.
‘There is no money available at the moment,’ the council’s envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, allegedly told the Palestinian groups, according to that Palestinian official.
The Hamas has repeatedly stated that it is ready to hand governance to the NCAG, led by Ali Shaath, a former deputy minister of the Palestinian Authority, who currently administers a limited self-government in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The intention is for Shaath’s committee to take control of Gaza’s ministries and administer its police force.
He and his 14 committee members are holed up in a hotel in Cairo, under the supervision of American and Egyptian agents, a diplomatic source said.
The rehabilitation of Gaza, where four-fifths of buildings were destroyed in two years of Israeli bombardment, is estimated to cost about US$70 billion, according to projections by global institutions.
The hesitant plan for Gaza’s future echoes other ambitious Trump initiatives, which have sought to project him as the world’s peacemaker, but have faced difficulties in ending the Ukraine war, as he claimed he would, and sees this week’s truce with Iran under intense pressure.
Disarmament
Egypt, which has been hosting the disarmament negotiations, invited Hamas to more meetings on Saturday, according to a source from the militant group.
The ceasefire halted full-scale war, but left Israeli forces in control of a depopulated zone that spans well over half of Gaza, with Hamas in power in a narrow coastal strip.
The Trump-backed council has been leading negotiations with Hamas and other Palestinian factions on disarmament. Israel argues that Hamas must lay down its weapons before withdrawing its troops from Gaza, and Hamas says it will not comply without guarantees of Israel’s exit and an end to firing in the enclave.
The diplomatic source familiar with the disarmament negotiations said the deadlock remains and fears that Israel is looking for an excuse to relaunch a large-scale offensive in Gaza.
Israeli military authorities have already stated that they are preparing for a rapid return to full-scale war, should Hamas not lay down its arms.
The Gaza war began with Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli records.
The two-year campaign that followed by Israel killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Gaza health authorities, spread famine and displaced most of the territory’s population.
