New York, Sept 23. (dpa/GNA) – The US-led Board of Peace, on Wednesday presented a plan for the partial reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, which has been extensively destroyed by heavy fighting over the past three years.
The six-month project is expected to cost nearly $2.5 billion, according to the announcement made at a donor and board members’ meeting in New York.
Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, was among those who appealed for donations at the event. The total cost of reconstruction would amount to $71 billion, according to the council.
Pledges of around $18 billion had so far been received. The six-month plan includes around $275 million for rubble removal from the largely devastated coastal strip, alongside numerous construction projects, humanitarian initiatives and the rebuilding of a police force.
Progress is being hampered not only by funding questions, but also by key political disputes. Neither the disarmament of the Palestinian Islamist militia Hamas, as envisioned in Trump’s peace plan, nor the withdrawal of Israeli forces from half of the Gaza Strip has been implemented.
A ceasefire has technically been in place in the Gaza war since October 2025. However, Israel has recently stepped up its airstrikes again, insisting that it is deliberately targeting high-ranking Hamas members.
The war was triggered by the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023.
The High Representative of the Board of Peace, Nickolay Mladenov, said in May that rebuilding the Gaza Strip is impossible without the disarmament of Hamas.
Unlike Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has so far rejected the post-war order roadmap and Hamas disarmament plan put forward by the board.
The talks with Israel are currently “not easy,” Mladenov said. One sticking point is that under the roadmap, weapons handed over by Hamas would be stored and remain under Palestinian control.
Israel demands the complete removal of weapons from the coastal strip. The government fears they could otherwise fall back into the hands of Palestinian militants.
The Board of Peace was proposed by Trump in September 2025, and formally established the following January.
Critics view the entity as a rival to the United Nations, an organization frequently criticized by the US president.
The board currently has around two dozen members, including Hungary, Israel, Belarus, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Many European countries, including Germany, refuse to participate, preferring to continue relying on the UNas the mechanism for resolving international conflicts.
GNA