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US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace has announced a $2.45 billion plan to begin Gaza’s recovery and reconstruction, according to the BBC.
The funding will be distributed among 66 programmes over six months, with priorities including housing, diesel-powered electricity generation and waste removal.
Billions still needed for reconstruction
The board said $18 billion had been pledged by donors, but only $280 million had been transferred so far. It estimates that Gaza’s full recovery and reconstruction will require about $71.4 billion over the next 10 years.
Jared Kushner, a member of the board’s Gaza Executive Board and Trump’s son-in-law, acknowledged that the project had faced “different delays on different things, for whatever reason”.
“The goal of today was really just to show you that we’re really fully committed to doing it,” Kushner told board members and other stakeholders at a meeting held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
US envoy Steve Witkoff, who attended the meeting in New York, said the group had made “real progress” over the past year.
“All of the hostages are home. There is a ceasefire, imperfect as it may be, but it still exists,” Witkoff said. He added that humanitarian efforts had produced “historic results”, with billions of dollars donated and pledged to address urgent needs and support the recovery effort.
Security and governance remain key challenges
Beyond fundraising, the reconstruction plan faces major questions over security for workers in Gaza, changes to internal governance and the need to reach agreement between Israeli and Palestinian officials.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a separate news conference that several countries had pledged financial support, while the board was seeking additional participants.
Former UK Prime Minister and board member Sir Tony Blair told the meeting that “the responsibility on us is huge”.
Ceasefire deaths and wider peace plan
Nickolay Mladenov, a senior Board of Peace official, criticised continuing Israeli air strikes on Gaza and the actions of the Palestinian armed group Hamas in August. He also warned that the collapse of the ceasefire that began last October would be “a point of no return” for the region.
At least 1,381 Palestinians, including 300 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since the US-brokered ceasefire began, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. The United Nations considers the ministry’s figures reliable.
The Israeli military says five of its soldiers have been killed in combat since the ceasefire, while one contractor died in what it described as an “operational accident”.
The Board of Peace was established as part of Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan, which he unveiled with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September last year. Hamas agreed to return all 48 remaining hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and Gaza detainees, and accepted the principle of transferring Gaza’s administration to Palestinian technocrats.
In July, Hamas said it had accepted a plan to disarm in Gaza if Israel ended “all forms of aggression” and withdrew its forces. Netanyahu later rejected the proposal, saying the military would remain in Gaza until Hamas was “genuinely” disarmed.
The Board of Peace was initially presented as an international body focused on bringing peace to Gaza, but its remit was later expanded to include conflicts around the world.
