US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, the flagship body created to oversee Gaza’s postwar reconstruction, has raised no money for the World Bank fund set to hold donor contributions, four months after the board was originally launched.
Several countries, including Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Morocco, Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, have signed up to Trump’s Board of Peace and have since contributed more than $7 billion toward a Gaza “relief package,” the US president said, as per a BBC report.
Trump himself promised an additional $10 billion in US backing, but the money pledged has yet to reach the World Bank account, which was designed to provide a transparent channel for reconstruction funds.
The Financial Times (FT) reported that the official fund remains empty, as donors have instead sent money to a separate JPMorgan account. The account is controlled directly by the board, which does not carry the same level of transparency requirements as the World Bank.
Current funding flows
Roughly $3 million from Morocco and about $20 million from the UAE have reportedly gone into the JPMorgan account, covering office costs of the board’s high representative for Gaza and salaries for a Palestinian technocratic committee created to work with the body.
The UAE has also earmarked $100 million to train a new police force in Gaza, but those funds remain frozen, as the program has not yet started.
Trump told the board’s first meeting in Washington that “we’re going to be working with the United Nations very closely” to deliver large-scale reconstruction in Rafah, including tens of thousands of new homes and major infrastructure spending.
The US State Department also plans to redirect about $1.2 billion in existing US aid toward projects aligned with the board’s mandate and has earmarked a further $50 million for the board’s operating costs, but none of these funds has been released so far, the Financial Timesr reported.
To date, not a single US dollar has been spent on reconstruction under the board’s umbrella, and no rebuilding contracts have been signed, leaving Gaza’s reconstruction on hold.
Stalled amid wider regional wars
The Board of Peace has still not moved from pledges to implementation, as Gaza’s infrastructure remains heavily damaged and security conditions unstable. The core steps of disarming Hamas, deploying an international security presence, and rebuilding civilian infrastructure have still not begun.
At the same time, a separate war between the US and Iran is drawing focus and air defense resources toward the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.
Russia has neither joined the board nor formally ruled out participation, leaving Moscow’s status unresolved, as the Kremlin did not participate in the first meeting in February.