WASHINGTON: U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that various U.S. allies have contributed over $7 billion to relief efforts in Gaza.
Speaking to the initial meeting of the Board of Peace, which Trump created, the U.S. president said that it looks like Palestinian militant group Hamas will disarm.
“I’m pleased to announce that Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, UAE, Morocco, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, and Kuwait have all contributed more than $7 billion toward the relief package,” Trump said at the board’s inaugural meeting in Washington.
Hamas, fearful of Israeli reprisals, has been reluctant to hand over weaponry as part of Trump’s 20-point Gaza plan that brought about a fragile ceasefire last October in the two-year Gaza war.
Trump said he hoped use of force to disarm Hamas would not be necessary. He said Hamas had promised to disarm and it “looks like they’re going to be doing that, but we’ll have to find out.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in Israel that Hamas will be disarmed one way or the other. “Very soon, Hamas will face a dilemma – to disarm peacefully or disarmed forcefully,” he said.
In Gaza, Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said any international force must “monitor the ceasefire and prevent the (Israeli) occupation from continuing its aggression”. Disarmament could be discussed, he said, without directly committing to it.
Hamas, which has resumed administration of the ruined enclave, says it is ready to hand over to a U.S.-backed committee of Palestinian technocrats led by Ali Shaath but that Israel has not allowed the group into Gaza. Israel has yet to comment on those assertions.
The White House in January named U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner as members of the initiative’s founding Executive Board.
WHICH COUNTRIES HAVE JOINED THE BOARD SO FAR?
The board’s official X account has listed over two dozen countries as founding members of the initiative, including Washington’s main Middle Eastern allies.
They include Israel and Saudi Arabia, along with Egypt and Qatar, which helped mediate talks for the Israel-Hamas ceasefire. Others in the region include Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
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From elsewhere in the world, there is Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Cambodia, El Salvador, Hungary, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Mongolia, Pakistan, Paraguay, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.