The White House on Friday announced some members of a so-called “Board of Peace” that is to supervise the temporary governance of Gaza, which has been under a fragile ceasefire since October.
The names include U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Trump is the chair of the board, according to a plan the White House unveiled in October.
The Gaza Executive Board will support the Office of the High Representative and a National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), headed up by Ali Shaath, which is expected to handle day-to-day governance in Gaza in lieu of Hamas.
The board will also include private equity executive and billionaire Marc Rowan, World Bank President Ajay Banga and Robert Gabriel, a Trump adviser, the White House said, adding that Nickolay Mladenov, a former U.N. Middle East envoy, will be the high representative for Gaza.
Army Major General Jasper Jeffers, a U.S. special operations commander, was appointed commander of the International Stabilization Force, the White House said. A U.N. Security Council resolution, adopted in mid-November, authorized the board and countries working with it to establish that force in Gaza.
The White House also named an 11-member “Gaza Executive Board” that will include Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Sigrid Kaag, Qatari diplomat Ali Al Thawadi and others.
This additional board will support Mladenov’s office and the Palestinian technocratic body, whose details were announced this week, the White House said.
This comes as the announced second phase calls for a full occupation forces’ withdrawal, disarmament of Hamas, deployment of an International Stabilization Force (ISF) and the establishment of a Palestinian “technocratic” committee to temporarily govern Gaza.
During the first phase, however, the Zionist occupation has repeatedly violated the ceasefire, killing more than 450 Palestinians, in addition to over 1,200 injured, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The Zionist entity’s war on Gaza since October 2023 has killed tens of thousands, caused a famine and internally displaced Gaza’s entire population. Multiple rights experts, scholars and a U.N. inquiry say this amounts to genocide.
