DUBAI: US President Donald Trump convened the first meeting of his Board of Peace in Washington on Feb. 19, bringing together about two dozen allied leaders and diplomats to discuss postwar governance of Palestine’s Gaza Strip.

Among those in attendance was Ali Shaath, a former undersecretary in the Palestinian Authority widely regarded as a nonpartisan figure. In January, he was appointed to lead the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, a 15-member body of technocrats expected to serve as the board’s governing partner on the ground.

As the vision takes shape, the scale of reconstruction presents a daunting challenge. A joint rapid damage assessment by the UN, European Union and World Bank estimates the cost of rebuilding Gaza and making it safe at approximately $70 billion.

Officials say about $20 billion will be needed in the first three years to jump-start recovery and stabilization.

At Thursday’s meeting, nine board member states committed a total of $7 billion toward a relief package, while the US committed an additional $10 billion.

Saudi Arabia pledged $1 billion to support efforts aimed at ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Addressing the board, Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir said the Kingdom was embarking “on a journey toward establishing a lasting and just peace in the Middle East.”

He emphasized a two-state solution in which “Palestine and Israel live side by side in peace and security.”

Such an outcome, he added, would transform the region “from death and destruction to hope and prosperity.” He also expressed Saudi Arabia’s readiness to cooperate with the Board of Peace to advance what he described as a “noble objective.”

For his part, Shaath outlined the committee’s mandate. “A new governing authority is now in place for Gaza with a clear mandate and a clear commitment to establishing development and stability,” he said, noting it would operate “in extremely difficult conditions.”

“Large parts of the Gaza Strip are severely damaged — destroyed actually, humanitarian needs are acute, law and order remain fragile,” he added.

Israel’s military campaign, launched after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, displaced nearly the entire population, and devastated civilian infrastructure.

Against this backdrop, the Board of Peace, announced in mid-January, is intended to coordinate Gaza’s reconstruction, security arrangements, and political transition under US leadership, with Trump as chair.

As part of that effort, Shaath said the committee’s immediate priority would be to restore security by deploying a 5,000-strong police force drawn entirely from Gaza within 60 days.

From there, the focus would shift to reviving economic activity, delivering sustained emergency relief, and restoring basic services.

“Our mandate is simple,” he said. “Step by step, to build the foundation for lasting peace, dignity and prosperity for the people of Gaza.”

But what is the structure of the Palestinian governing body tasked with carrying out that mission, and how viable will it be?

Hugh Lovatt, a senior policy fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Arab News that the committee’s final composition has been in flux for months. By cross-referencing images from meetings in Cairo with European Commission records, he has identified several of its members.

He said the group appears to include many former Palestinian Authority officials, despite Israel’s insistence that neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority should play a role in postwar governance.

“What comes out of the profiles is the extent to which the members of the committee have had ties to the Palestinian Authority and to the Fatah party of President (Mahmoud) Abbas,” Lovatt said.

As an example, he cited Sami Nasman, a prominent officer in the Palestinian General Intelligence Service who is expected to oversee internal security.

At the same time, he noted that several other members come from humanitarian and academic backgrounds and appear less politically aligned.

According to Lovatt, the committee faces significant hurdles, with Hamas having yet to disarm, and Israel continuing to block committee members from entering Gaza.

“They aren’t even allowed into Gaza at the moment,” he said. “They don’t have funding; they don’t have civil service at the moment.”

Israel has barred committee members from entering Gaza via the Rafah crossing, citing security concerns, according to a report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Members are currently operating from Egypt or remotely, limiting their ability to exercise authority on the ground.

In the interim, Lovatt said, governance on the ground is largely in the hands of existing civil servants, adding that Hamas insists on keeping much of Gaza’s bureaucracy intact after any transfer of power — an arrangement that appears to have been accepted for now.

As a result, while the technocratic committee undergoes training in Cairo under the Board of Peace, the day-to-day administration of Gaza continues to rely on the pre-existing civil infrastructure.

Indeed, although Hamas publicly pledged in late January to hand over civilian administration, it reportedly retains full control of security forces, about 40,000 civil servants, and its weapons.

Full disarmament, which is a core condition tied to Phase Two of Trump’s 20-point ceasefire plan and Board of Peace oversight, has yet to be implemented.

The war in Gaza has been widely described by rights groups and UN bodies as amounting to “genocide,” with accusations that Israel used starvation as a weapon of war.

According to the local health authority, at least 72,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, were killed and more than 171,680 were injured until a ceasefire took effect on Oct. 9.

In November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as a former Hamas commander, citing allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Nickolay Mladenov, a former Bulgarian politician selected as the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, said that while the committee is prepared to assume its mandate, the situation remains volatile.

“Unfortunately, some people believe that this is a bit like changing a government after an election,” he told CNN during a recent interview. “It’s far more complicated than that.

“We need to be able to verify and to confirm that the transfer of authority by Hamas to the International Committee happens in a meaningful way.”

Mladenov, who acts as the link between the board and the committee, maintained that Trump’s plan is the most comprehensive path forward, while warning that alternatives could be catastrophic.

“I think we need to make very clear to everyone that there are only three pathways forward,” he said.

“One pathway leads to a resumption of war, and that is certainly something that we want to avoid. The second pathway, perhaps even more dangerous than the resumption of war, is cementing the situation which you have now, where Gaza is divided.”

The third pathway, he said, “requires Hamas to give up civilian control of Gaza, to decommission all weapons inside the Gaza Strip, and to have a new governance model that allows for reconstruction to happen.”

Gaza remains physically and politically divided, split between Israeli-controlled eastern buffer zones, including the Yellow Line, and a densely packed western coastal strip where most Palestinians are confined.

Israel controls more than half of Gaza’s land, enforcing no-go zones and preventing full Palestinian access or return. The remaining coastal enclave, which is ever-shrinking due to operations, is managed uneasily between Hamas’s residual security hold, the sidelined technocratic committee, and limited aid flows via Rafah, which Israel contests.

Given these circumstances, some observers question whether the committee will ultimately be able to benefit Palestinians in Gaza.

Hannan Hussein, a senior expert at the Initiate Futures policy think tank, cautioned that the technocratic committee might “ultimately work to implement reconstruction in Gaza in a manner that is beneficial to Israel.”

He told Arab News: “Its success is ultimately tethered to the operations of the Board of Peace. Its mandate comes at a time when the possibilities of enduring peace in Gaza are not in line with the interests of besieged Palestinians.

“This is important, because enduring stability remains distant when those subject to aggression lack a voice within the committee. To succeed, it needs ownership from the ground up, which is lacking.”

Those concerns are compounded by ongoing violence despite a ceasefire that took effect on Oct. 9. Israel has continued airstrikes and raids that have killed Palestinians and obstructed large-scale reconstruction, keeping the territory in a state of chronic emergency.

Since the ceasefire took effect, another 601 Palestinians had been killed and 1,607 injured, according to Gaza’s health authority.

Aid groups continue to call for a genuine and sustained cessation of violence, saying continued violence, displacement and restrictions on humanitarian access are hindering the delivery of essential assistance.

Although the Rafah crossing with Egypt reopened on Feb. 2 in both directions, the flow of people and aid is below agreed levels, an official from the Egyptian Red Crescent in North Sinai told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper on Feb. 19.

Hussein also raised concerns about the committee’s lack of independent oversight and questions surrounding transparency.

Even so, the committee appears, for now, to have the broadest backing of any Palestinian body positioned to govern Gaza, with both Hamas and Israel agreeing in principle to its formation.

Implementation of the Gaza plan appears to be moving forward, according to the European Council on Foreign Relations.

The latest confirmed list of technocrats suggests a final roster of 16 to 17 commissioners, although several portfolios — including transport, energy, land authority and religious affairs — remain to be finalized.