Tony Blair, Rubio, Kushner, Witkoff to help oversee Gaza reconstruction, White House says
The White House released the names of some of the leaders who will play a role in overseeing the next steps in Gaza after the Palestinian committee set to govern the territory under U.S. supervision met for the first time Friday in Cairo.
The committee's leader, Ali Shaath, an engineer and former Palestinian Authority official from Gaza, pledged to get to work quickly to improve conditions. He expects reconstruction and recovery to take about three years and plans to focus first on immediate needs, including shelter.
"The Palestinian people were looking forward to this committee, its establishment and its work to rescue them," Shaath said after the meeting, in a television interview with Egypt's state-owned Al-Qahera News.
Under President Trump's plan, Shaath's technocratic committee will run day-to-day affairs in Gaza under the oversight of a Trump-led "Board of Peace," whose members have not yet been named.
The White House said an executive board will work to carry out the vision of the Board of Peace.
The executive board's members, announced Friday, include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan, World Bank President Ajay Banga, and Mr. Trump's deputy national security adviser Robert Gabriel.
Nickolay Mladenov, a former Bulgarian politician and U.N. Middle East envoy, is to serve as the executive board's representative overseeing day-to-day matters.
Mr. Trump supports the group's efforts to govern Gaza after the two-year war between Israel and Hamas. Israeli troops withdrew from parts of Gaza after the ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10, while thousands of displaced Palestinians have returned to what is left of their homes.
Kushner and Witkoff were key negotiators in helping Israel and the terrorist organization Hamas reach a ceasefire deal, the premise of which was based on a 20-point blueprint from the White House. In an interview with "60 Minutes" in October, Kushner said the success or failure of the peace plan would depend on whether Israel and the international partners involved can create "a viable alternative" to Hamas' violent tactics.
"If they are successful, Hamas will fail, and Gaza will not be a threat to Israel in the future," Kushner told "60 Minutes."
Earlier this week, Witkoff announced the U.S. was moving into what the White House has called the second phase of the Gaza peace plan. In a post to X, Witkoff said this involved Hamas returning the remains of the final deceased hostage still in Gaza.
"Failure to do so will bring serious consequences," Witkoff wrote.
Now, there will be a number of huge challenges going forward, including the deployment of an international security force to supervise the ceasefire deal and the difficult process of disarming Hamas.
The White House also announced the members of another board, the "Gaza Executive Board," which will work with Mladenov, the technocratic committee and the international stabilization force.
Witkoff, Kushner, Blair, Rowan and Mladenov will also sit on that board. Additional members include Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan; Qatari diplomat Ali Al-Thawadi; Hassan Rashad, director of Egypt's General Intelligence Agency; Emirati minister Reem Al-Hashimy; Israeli businessman Yakir Gabay and Sigrid Kaag, the Netherlands' former deputy prime minister and a Middle East expert.