U.S. President Donald Trump has invited Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to join the “Board of Peace,” which has been established as part of the president’s 20-point plan for the reconstruction and governance of Gaza.
A senior government official says Carney will accept the invitation but has yet to inform Trump of his decision.
Carney’s name was not among the initial list of executive board members released by the White House on Friday of leaders who will play a role in overseeing the next steps in Gaza. The Palestinian committee set to govern the territory under U.S. supervision met for the first time Friday in Cairo.
The committee’s leader, Dr. Ali Shaath, an engineer and former Palestinian Authority official from Gaza, pledged to get to work quickly to improve conditions. He expects reconstruction and recovery to take about three years and plans to focus first on immediate needs, including shelter.
Under Trump’s plan, Shaath’s technocratic committee will run day-to-day affairs in Gaza under the oversight of a Trump-led “Board of Peace,” whose members include U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan, World Bank President Ajay Banga, and Trump’s deputy national security adviser Robert Gabriel.
Nickolay Mladenov, a former Bulgarian politician and UN Mideast envoy, is to serve as the executive board’s representative overseeing day-to-day matters.
The White House also announced the members of another board, the “Gaza Executive Board,” which will work with Mladenov, the technocratic committee and the international stabilization force.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the announced start of the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire a “declarative move,” rather than a sign of progress.
The announcement of the ceasefire’s second phase left many questions unanswered, including the deployment of an international security force to supervise the ceasefire deal, the reopening of Gaza’s southern Rafah border crossing, and concrete details about disarming Hamas.
Palestinians in Gaza expressed skepticism about changes on the ground, citing ongoing violence and hardships. More than 450 people have been killed since Israel and Hamas agreed to halt fighting in October, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The casualties since the October ceasefire, which UNICEF said include more than 100 children, are among the 71,441 Palestinians killed since the start of Israel’s offensive, according to the ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians. Israel disputes those figures but has not provided its own.
This is the third winter since the war between Israel and Hamas started on Oct. 7, 2023, when militants stormed into southern Israel and killed around 1,200 people and abducted 251 others.
Files from The Associated Press were used in this report
