Representatives from the various bodies of the Board of Peace will gather at a resort in Cyprus next week, as the US-led international panel overseeing the postwar management of Gaza seeks to recalibrate after a rocky six months since its establishment.

Participants at the gathering will include representatives from the Board of Peace umbrella body, the committee of Palestinian technocrats tasked with replacing Hamas in governing the Gaza Strip, and the Office of the High Representative, which coordinates between those two bodies.

An Arab diplomat from one of the mediating countries and a Palestinian official familiar with the matter described the gathering as an opportunity for everyone involved to “reset,” “recalibrate” and get on the same page after the past half a year produced limited results for the people of Gaza.

While the Board of Peace enjoyed initial international support and even a degree of buy-in from both Israel and Hamas, the initiative has slowed as global attention shifted to the Iran war and talks, and as talks with Hamas on giving up its weapons remain entrenched. The terror group argues that Israel should first abide by the terms of the October ceasefire, which required it to halt strikes deep into the Strip, pull back its troops toward the border and allow in more humanitarian aid.

The stalemate has left the war-ravaged Strip with very limited relief, with Israel refusing to allow the entry of even certain temporary housing structures until Hamas disarms, leaving nearly half of the population of over 2 million living in flimsy tents after nearly three years of conflict, sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, invasion and onslaught.

While a February donor conference in Washington brought in $17 billion in pledges, only a tiny fraction of those funds have actually been transferred, as the Gulf countries that offered the largest sums were the most targeted by Iran in the weeks that followed, in what will likely force a budget reprioritization.

Meanwhile, the Board of Peace’s sub-panel of Palestinian technocrats — the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) — hasn’t even entered the Strip, amid Hamas’s refusal to disarm and amid mounting Israeli restrictions on its ability to operate, according to two Arab diplomats from separate mediating countries.

The 15-member panel has been stuck in Cairo since its establishment in January, using the time to craft plans for its Gaza launch, meet with Egypt-based and visiting diplomats and even undergo several training sessions run by senior Board of Peace official Tony Blair’s Institute for Global Change government consulting firm.

While next week’s gathering will provide the NCAG with an opportunity to get out of Cairo for several days, some........

© The Times of Israel