US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace said yesterday it has no funding constraints and that all requests have been met ‘immediately and in full’ to date.
Reuters, citing sources, reported earlier in the day that the peace board has received only a tiny fraction of the $17 billion pledged for Gaza, preventing Trump from pushing ahead with his plan for the shattered Palestinian enclave’s future.
“The Board of Peace is a lean, execution-focused organisation that calls capital as needed. There are no funding constraints. To date, all funding requests have been met immediately and in full,” the board said on X.
The board also acknowledged that far more remains to be done.
Ten days before US-Israeli attacks on Iran, 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 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 US-backed group of Palestinian technocrats intended to assume control of Gaza from Hamas.
One of the sources, a person with direct knowledge of the peace board’s operations, said that out of 10 countries who pledged funds, only three – the UAE, Morocco, and the US itself – had contributed funding. The source said funding so far was under $1bn, 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.
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.
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