WASHINGTON — President Trump told The Post Monday that $5 billion in pledges for Gaza Strip reconstruction will go toward projects cleared by his Board of Peace, which will meet later this week near the White House.
The fundraising haul, announced ahead of Thursday’s summit, represents a down payment on the estimated $70 billion cost to rebuild the Palestinian enclave quoted in a joint study by the United Nations, European Union and World Bank.
“It’s going to go to making Gaza happen,” Trump said in a brief phone interview when asked about the money.
The funds would go to “making [Gaza] stable, and ultimately, I think, to other areas of the world that can, you know, where peace can be brought about,” added the president, alluding to his expansive vision for the board he chairs.
Asked if the pledges would go toward building housing for Gaza’s nearly 2 million people, Trump said, “We haven’t decided yet … that’ll be up to the board.”
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who helped broker a cease-fire this past October after two years of fighting between Israel and Hamas that flattened much of Gaza, presented ambitious plans at last month’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, for a flourishing skyscraper-dotted Gaza City resembling Dubai or Doha.
A slideshow prepared by Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff described a phased rebuilding of the coastal territory, beginning with the construction of homes in the southern portion of the region — with 100,000 homes ro be built in the city of Rafah within three years.
Hamas still controls much of Gaza’s heavily populated areas after carrying out the Oct. 7, 2023, attack across southern Israel, and Trump has repeatedly threatened military action by regional allies to finish off the terrorist group if it won’t disarm.
The Board of Peace received authorization by the United Nations in November to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction, including the installation of a “technocratic” Palestinian government and international peacekeeping force.
Trump wrote on Truth Social Sunday that the board will “announce that Member States have pledged more than $5 BILLION DOLLARS toward the Gaza Humanitarian and Reconstruction efforts.”
The meeting also will broadcast how members “have committed thousands of personnel to the International Stabilization Force and Local Police to maintain Security and Peace for Gazans.”
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, said Sunday that about 8,000 of its troops are preparing to deploy to Gaza between April and June of this year.
