The Gaza reconstruction fund, established under Donald Trump's peace initiative, has yet to receive any payments from donor countries. This comes despite public promises to allocate tens of billions of dollars.
The official Gaza reconstruction fund, established under Donald Trump's Peace Council, currently has no funds. This was reported to AFP by sources familiar with the situation.
The fund was announced in February during a meeting of the Peace Council in Washington. At that time, Donald Trump stated that the member countries of the organization were ready to allocate seven billion dollars to the Gaza Strip.
Among the countries that promised funding were the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Morocco, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, and Uzbekistan.
The U.S., according to Trump, was set to add another ten billion dollars, while the UN was to contribute two billion.
However, several months later, the fund, which is administered by the World Bank with the support of the UN, remains effectively empty. Sources claim that the funds have not arrived because the full-scale reconstruction phase in Gaza has yet to begin.
Formally, the fund was supposed to finance post-war reconstruction and the work of the National Committee for Gaza Management, which was planned to take control of the territory after the disarmament of Hamas. But the implementation of the second phase of the peace plan is currently effectively blocked.
The U.S. had previously stated that the next phase should include the disarmament of Hamas and the gradual withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip. However, negotiations surrounding this process have been stalled for several weeks. The Israeli army continues to control a significant portion of the territory.
According to an assessment by the EU and the UN published in the spring, more than 71 billion dollars will be needed for the reconstruction of Gaza over the next ten years.
In fact, the international community is currently facing a situation where political statements about the future post-war arrangement of the region are outpacing real agreements on the ground.
The war in the Gaza Strip began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. The first phase of the current ceasefire involved the exchange of hostages and prisoners. However, further progress on the peace plan has proven to be significantly more complicated.
The story of the empty fund illustrates how uncertain the fate of future reconstruction in Gaza remains — even despite loud international promises and the involvement of the world's largest players.
