Palestinian factions meeting in Egypt have reached agreement on the 12 members of a technocratic committee to run Gaza's day-to-day affairs, sources familiar with the process told The National on Wednesday.
Members of the committee, which is part of US President Donald Trump's 20-point peace plan for the war-battered enclave, will meet on Thursday in Egypt to review its mandate, briefs and priorities, the sources said. "Invitations have been sent out to the members and some of them already arrived in Egypt," said one of the sources.
Mr Trump was expected to announce the creation of the committee later on Wednesday, Reuters reported, citing Palestinian sources.
It is believed the committee will be chaired by Ali Shaath, a former deputy planning minister in the western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The other committee members will be in charge of a portfolios such as finance, water, local councils, the judiciary, security, health and agriculture.
The factions meeting in Egypt said they supported mediators' efforts to form the committee and create conditions for it to "immediately assume responsibility for Gaza".
The PA must approve the committee before it can take charge of running Gaza, replacing Hamas's 19-year rule of the enclave. The new administration will not include Hamas members.
The committee's meeting on Thursday will be attended by representatives of Gaza's peace mediators – the United States, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey.
The second phase of Mr Trump's peace plan also provides for the creation of a UN-sanctioned International Stabilisation Force to be deployed in Gaza and a so-called board of peace, possibly led by the American leader, to oversee the future of the territory, including reconstruction. Other elements include the thorny issue of disarming Hamas and Israel's withdrawal from Gaza.
The board is expected to include heads of state and representatives of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, the sources said. It will supervise the work of the 12-man technocratic committee.
The first phase of Mr Trump's plan began with a ceasefire in October that paused the two-year-old Gaza war and allowed an exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinians detained in Israel.
It also featured a partial withdrawal by Israeli troops beyond a "yellow line" that left them in control of a little more than 50 per cent of Gaza. More than 71,000 of the Palestinian territory's estimated two million residents have been killed since the war began in October 2023, when an attack by Hamas on southern Israel left 1,200 dead and another 250 were taken hostage.
The preparations for the second phase come at a time when the ceasefire has been showing signs of fragility. Israel has killed more than 440 Palestinians in attacks that have continued despite the truce, while militants have been blamed for the deaths of three Israeli soldiers.
Israel has failed to open the Rafah border crossing linking Gaza and Egypt as agreed, and allowed in only a fraction of the humanitarian aid needed, UN agencies and aid groups have said.
The headquarters of the board of peace is expected to be set up in the Egyptian city of Al Arish in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, the sources said.
The Mediterranean city, which has an international-grade airport and a commercial port, lies about 40km from the crossing.
Mr Trump has said many countries have agreed to participate in the stabilisation force that will maintain security in Gaza but has not named them. Egypt and Jordan are widely thought to be among the leading candidates to contribute troops, while Bangladesh said on Saturday it wanted to participate.
Israel has opposed the participation of Turkey because of what it sees as the hostile attitude of the Muslim-majority Nato member nation since the Gaza war broke out.
Egypt, a US ally that borders Israel and Gaza and which has close ties with Ankara, is known to be in favour of Turkish participation. The sources the US is trying to persuade Israel to accept Turkish participation in the proposed force.
