White House Forms Donald Trump-Backed Gaza Peace Council, Netanyahu Opposes Composition

The White House said that, under a 20-point plan to end the war backed by Washington, a Peace Council chaired by Donald Trump would be formed to address strengthening governance capacity, regional relations, reconstruction, attracting investments, large-scale financing and mobilizing capital for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, ravaged by two years of war.

20 Minutes with AFP reported that initial names of members disclosed by the U.S. presidency included Marco Rubio, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, Tony Blair, Marc Rowan, Ajay Banga, and Robert Gabriel, with several foreign leaders indicating on Saturday they had received an invitation to join the council.

20 Minutes

The same report said the White House also created a Palestinian Governance Committee, a technocratic body chaired by Ali Shaath and made up of 15 Palestinian figures, to supervise the restoration of essential public services, the reconstruction of civil institutions and the stabilization of daily life in Gaza.

It further said an executive board was intended to contribute to supporting effective governance and the provision of cutting-edge services for Gaza’s population, with names including Nickolay Mladenov, Sigrid Kaag, and other Turkish, Qatari, Egyptian and Emirati representatives, plus an Israeli billionaire.

On the Israeli side, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office expressed opposition to the composition of the new body, saying the announcement was not coordinated with Israel and goes against its policy, and that the Prime Minister had tasked the foreign minister with contacting the U.S. Secretary of State about this.

Human Rights Watch marked the fifteenth anniversary of the blockade established in 2007, saying Israel’s generalized restrictions imposed on more than two million Gaza residents to leave the landlocked territory deprive them of the opportunity to improve their lives.

HRW said that, “With Egypt's help, Israel has turned Gaza into an open-air prison,” and it called for Israel to end the generalized travel ban imposed on Gaza residents and allow the free movement of people to and from Gaza, subject at most to individual checks and physical searches for security purposes.

Al-Jazeera Net

HRW reported that between February 2021 and March 2022 it interviewed 20 Palestinians seeking to leave Gaza by using the Erez crossing, operated by Israel, or the Rafah crossing, administered by Egypt, and it said it wrote to Israeli and Egyptian authorities to seek their views but received no response to date.

The organization said that, since 2007, Israeli authorities have, with rare exceptions, forbidden Palestinians from transiting through the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel, from which they can reach the West Bank and travel abroad via Jordan.

HRW also described how Egyptian restrictive policies at the Rafah crossing, including needless delays and abusive treatment of travelers, intensified the human rights abuses caused by the blockade.

Al-Jazeera Net described a timeline of transformations in Gaza’s administrative system since 2014, saying the structure swung between local crisis-management committees and internationally supported transitional frameworks to run relief and service delivery.

“(Gaza, June 14, 2022) - The generalized restrictions imposed by Israel on more than two million Gaza residents to leave this landlocked territory deprive them of the opportunity to improve their lives, HRW said today on the fifteenth anniversary of the blockade established in 2007”

Human Rights Watch

It said that with the outbreak of the October 2023 war, an operations room of the existing committee under the name “Government Emergency Committee” was activated to oversee hospitals, shelters for the displaced, water, and debris removal in coordination with international and local partners.

The outlet reported that in 2025 Israel assassinated dozens of administrative and security cadres within the system, most prominently the head of the “Committee for Monitoring Government Work” عصام الدعاليس in March 2025.

It added that today the Government Media Office in the Gaza Strip announced in a press conference the resignation of the head of the Government Emergency Committee and the official dissolution of the committee, paving the way for transferring administrative tasks and governance in the sector to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza.

Al-Jazeera Net said the Media Office called on all involved parties to accelerate bringing the National Committee into the Gaza Strip to exercise its duties immediately, to alleviate the escalating humanitarian suffering resulting from the consequences of the genocide war, reconstruction delays, the ongoing blockade, and the closure of crossings.