2026 Gaza Plan: Blair, Rubio on Trump’s Board Amid Deep Scepticism
The Trump administration has unveiled the founding members of a new international Board of Peace for Gaza, naming US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and former UK prime minister Tony Blair among its most prominent figures.
2026 Gaza Plan
The White House said the board will be chaired by Donald Trump and forms part of his 20 point plan to end the war between Israel and Hamas. It is expected to temporarily oversee Gaza’s administration and coordinate reconstruction during the next phase of the ceasefire.
Other members of the founding executive board include Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, the president’s son in law Jared Kushner, private equity executive Marc Rowan, World Bank president Ajay Banga and US national security adviser Robert Gabriel. Each member, the White House said, will hold a portfolio considered critical to Gaza’s stabilisation and long term recovery.
Trump praised the group as the most prestigious board ever assembled and said further appointments would be announced in the coming weeks.
Sir Tony Blair, who led the UK from 1997 to 2007 and took Britain into the Iraq war, later served as Middle East envoy for the Quartet of international powers. In that role he focused on economic development and efforts to create conditions for a two state solution. He has already been involved in behind the scenes discussions on Gaza’s future and attended a White House meeting with Trump last summer to review what Witkoff described as comprehensive plans for the territory.
The decision to involve Blair has drawn mixed reactions in Britain. Health Secretary Wes Streeting previously acknowledged that Blair’s role would raise eyebrows because of Iraq, while also pointing to his part in brokering the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland.
Alongside the Board of Peace, Washington has announced a separate 15 member Palestinian technocratic body, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, which will manage day to day governance. It will be led by Ali Shaath, a former deputy minister in the Palestinian Authority. The board’s on the ground representative in Gaza will be Nickolay Mladenov, a former UN Middle East envoy and Bulgarian foreign minister.
Security arrangements will include an International Stabilisation Force tasked with training and supporting vetted Palestinian police units. The White House said the force would be led by US Major General Jasper Jeffers to help establish security and a durable environment free from militant control.
The US peace plan entered its second phase earlier this month. The first phase delivered a ceasefire in October, a hostage prisoner exchange, partial Israeli troop withdrawals and a surge in humanitarian aid. Phase two is intended to focus on reconstruction and the full demilitarisation of Gaza, including the disarmament of Hamas and other armed groups. Witkoff warned that failure by Hamas to meet its obligations would bring serious consequences.
Despite the framework, the ceasefire remains fragile. Gaza’s health authorities say nearly 450 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since it came into force, while Israel reports the deaths of three soldiers in attacks by Palestinian groups. The UN continues to warn that humanitarian conditions remain dire and that unrestricted access for aid is essential.
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For many Palestinians, the announcement of the Board of Peace has been met with a mix of exhaustion, guarded hope and deep scepticism. Arwa Ashour, a journalist in Gaza City, said political decisions often feel remote from daily life shaped by displacement, fear and shortages. She said people want schools, hospitals and freedom of movement restored, and will judge any new structure by whether it can deliver real change.
Human rights advocates have also questioned whether Palestinians will have meaningful influence over decisions. Maha Hussaini of Euro Med Human Rights Monitor warned that excluding Gazans from shaping their future risks turning reconstruction into a tool of control rather than recovery. She argued that peace without justice, accountability and dignity would amount to little more than a pause between wars.
Political analyst Ahmed Fayyad said Palestinians have little choice but to engage with the new governance model, even if it means ceding authority to international actors. He highlighted potential obstacles including divisions between Palestinian factions and the insistence by Israel and the US on Hamas’s demilitarisation, which could be tied to reconstruction and border access.
On the ground, daily survival remains the overriding concern. Sami Balousha, a computer programmer from Gaza City who has been displaced repeatedly during the war, described peace simply as the ability to sleep through the night without fear of bombardment and to go to work knowing he can return home safely.
“They talk about plans and boards far away,” he said. “What people here want is for the killing to stop and for life to feel normal again. People are exhausted, but they still want to live.”
As international diplomacy accelerates, the gap between grand designs for Gaza’s future and the lived reality of its 2.1 million residents remains wide. Whether the new Board of Peace can bridge that divide may determine whether the next phase brings lasting stability or yet another cycle of disappointment.
