Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said on Saturday that Cairo is continuing talks with Washington on the postwar governance framework for Gaza, and the US will “announce the establishment of a Board of Peace in the coming period”.
Speaking to The National on the sidelines of the Doha Forum, Mr Abdelatty outlined the next steps for Gaza’s administration. He said the immediate priority is the formation of a Palestinian administrative committee, and Egypt is “pushing for its speedy formation and [for it to] spread on the Gaza Strip, because the Palestinians should govern themselves”.
“The committee will consist of Palestinian technocrats who are the residents of the Strip. They will be tasked with managing Gaza and providing essential services to its residents,” said Mr Abdelatty.
He said the UN Security Council resolution underpinning the plan is built on “three entities”: the Board of Peace, the International Stabilisation Force and the administrative committee – each of them temporary and all ending on December 31, 2027.
'Foundation of Palestinian state'
The Board of Peace, an international governing body, is expected to include about a dozen Middle Eastern and western leaders and the move is the next phase of a US-brokered ceasefire deal.
Under the ceasefire agreement, the board is to be chaired by US President Donald Trump. It will oversee Gaza's reconstruction under a two-year UN mandate.
The announcement would be a significant step towards implementing Mr Trump's 20-point plan for the territory devastated by Israel's two-year military campaign against Hamas.
“By the end of the mandate, the Palestinian Authority shall be empowered and shall oversee the Gaza Strip and West Bank, because the two are connected and they are the foundation of a Palestinian state,” said Mr Abdelatty.
Talks are continuing on which countries will take part in the international force for Gaza, but deployment is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2026. The force's role will be to maintain security and ensure the disarming of the militant Hamas group, a key demand of Israel.
The issue of disarming Hamas, a step the militant group has not yet agreed to, will be a critical part of the talks. The plan also calls for Israel to withdraw its troops from the roughly half of the Gaza Strip that it still controls, as the international force is deployed.
Senior Hamas official Khaled Meshal on Saturday said that the group rejects any external governance of Gaza. “Palestinians govern themselves by themselves,” he said.
The US-brokered ceasefire was announced on October 10, but Israeli troops have killed hundreds of Palestinians since then.
Israel has killed more than 70,100 Palestinians, since the Gaza war started on October 7, 2023, according to Palestinian authorities.
The Israeli military began its offensive after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel and killed 1,200 people, taking hundreds hostage.
