Reuters
Several countries which have signed up to Donald Trump’s Board of Peace have contributed more than $7bn (£5.2bn) towards a Gaza “relief package”, the US president has said.
Trump made the announcement during the first meeting of the organisation that many of US’s Western allies have refused to join, fearing the body board originally meant to help end the war between Israel and Hamas may be intended to replace the UN.
The second phase of a US-brokered Gaza ceasefire plan includes the disarmament of Hamas and the reconstruction of Gaza.
It “looks like” Hamas would disarm, Trump told participants. However, there are few signs of the Palestinian group disarming. Gazans say it is extending its control over the Strip.
Speaking as the Board of Peace convened on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had “agreed with our ally the US there will be no reconstruction of Gaza before the demilitarisation of Gaza”.
The war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
Israel responded to the attack by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 71,550 people have been killed, according to the territory’s health ministry.
The UN estimates the cost of damage at $70bn.
Countries including the UK, Canada, France and Germany have refused to join the Board of Peace that came into being last month.
In an effort to address concerns that the organisation was meant as a way of sidelining the UN, Trump told the board’s first meeting in Washington that “we’re going to be working with the United Nations very closely, we’re going to bring them back”.
Gaza, the US president said, was “no longer a hotbed of radicalism and terror”.
“And to end that, we have today, and I’m pleased to announce that Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, UAE, Morocco, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, and Kuwait have all contributed more than $7bn toward the relief package”.
“Every dollar spent is an investment in stability,” he said, adding that the UN would contribute $2bn for humanitarian assistance, while football body Fifa would raise $75m for soccer-related projects in the Strip.
Nickolay Mladenov, a Bulgarian politician who has been given the title of high representative for Gaza as part of the board, said the process of recruiting a new transitional Palestinian police force had begun and “just in the first few hours we have 2,000 people who have applied”.
