Khaberni - Sources told Reuters that the peace council led by U.S. President Donald Trump received only a fraction of the $17 billion previously pledged for Gaza, preventing Trump from advancing his plan for the future of this devastated Palestinian sector.
Ten days before the American and Israeli attacks on Iran that plunged the region into war, Trump hosted a conference in Washington where Gulf States committed billions of dollars to manage and rebuild Gaza after Israel had caused widespread destruction over two years.
The plan envisaged a large-scale reconstruction of the coastal area after the disarmament of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), whose attacks on Israel led to the assault on Gaza and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
The financial pledges were also intended to fund the activities of the emerging National Committee for the Management of Gaza, a group of Palestinian technocrats supported by the United States aiming to take control of the sector from Hamas.
After this report was published, the Peace Council denied in a statement on social media last Friday that there were any funding issues.
The statement said, "The Peace Council is a resilient organization focused on implementation and summons capital as needed. There are no funding issues. So far, all funding requests have been met immediately and in full."
Representatives of the National Committee for the Management of Gaza have not yet responded to a request for comment.
One source, a person directly familiar with the operations of the Peace Council, stated that among the ten countries that pledged funds, only three countries - the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and the United States itself - have contributed to the funding.
The source added that the funding so far is less than a billion dollars, but did not provide further details. He noted that the war with Iran "affected everything," which led to increased difficulties facing the funding.
The source added that the National Committee for the Management of Gaza has not been able to enter the sector due to funding and security problems. Even after the ceasefire agreement in October last year, health officials in Gaza said Israeli attacks had killed at least 700 people in the sector, while Israel said that attacks by Palestinian militants killed four of its soldiers.
A second source, a Palestinian official informed on the matter, said the council informed Hamas and other Palestinian factions that the National Committee for the Management of Gaza is currently unable to enter the sector due to a lack of funding.
The official quoted Nikolai Mladenov, the council's envoy, telling the Palestinian factions, "There are currently no funds available."
Hamas has repeatedly confirmed its readiness to hand over the reins of government to the committee led by Ali Shaath, a former deputy minister in the Palestinian Authority, which currently exercises limited self-governance in parts of the West Bank occupied by Israel.
Shaath's committee is scheduled to take control of Gaza's ministries and manage its police forces.
A diplomatic source stated that Shaath and the 14 members of his committee are currently in a hotel in Cairo under the supervision of American and Egyptian officials.
International institutions estimate the cost of reconstructing Gaza at about $70 billion, after Israeli bombing destroyed about four-fifths of the buildings in the sector over two years.
This faltering scheme for Gaza's future is an example of other ambitious initiatives undertaken by Trump that have stalled. The U.S. President has sought to present himself as a peacemaker in the world, but he has failed to end the war in Ukraine as promised, at a time when the truce with Iran this week is under severe pressure from its outset.
A source in Hamas said Egypt, which hosts the disarmament talks, invited the movement to more meetings today, Saturday.
The ceasefire stage of the agreement stopped the comprehensive war but kept Israeli forces in control of a sparsely populated area comprising more than half the area of Gaza, with Hamas still in power in a small part of the coastal sector.
Trump's team is leading negotiations with Hamas and other Palestinian factions on disarmament. Israel says that Hamas must hand over its weapons before Israeli forces withdraw from Gaza. However, Hamas says it will not comply unless it receives guarantees of Israeli withdrawal and a ceasefire.
The diplomatic source informed on the disarmament talks said the negotiations still face a crisis, expressing concerns that Israel might be seeking a pretext to launch a new comprehensive attack on Gaza.
Israeli military officials say they are preparing to quickly return to comprehensive warfare if Hamas does not surrender its weapons.
The Gaza war erupted following attacks by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, Israeli statistics indicate that they resulted in 1200 deaths.
As for the Gaza Strip, its health authorities say the two-year Israeli military campaign resulted in the deaths of more than 72,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and led to the outbreak of famine and the displacement of the majority of the population of the sector.
