JERUSALEM/CAIRO: Donald Trump’s peace board has received only a small portion of the $17 billion pledged for Gaza, sources told Reuters, blocking the US president from pushing ahead with his plan for the future of the breakaway Palestinian enclave. Ten days before US-Israeli strikes on Iran plunged the region into war, Trump hosted a conference in Washington at which Gulf Arab countries pledged billions of dollars to govern and rebuild Gaza. One of the sources, a person with direct knowledge of the peace board’s operations, said that of the ten countries that had pledged funds, only three – the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and the US itself – had contributed money. The source said funding so far was less than $1 billion, but did not provide further details. The Iran war has “impacted everything,” the source said, exacerbating previous funding difficulties. The plan envisages large-scale reconstruction of the coastal area after the disarmament of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. The Peace Board denied in a statement posted on social media on Friday that it had funding problems.(This is a Reuters story)
