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US President Donald Trump's Board of Peace has announced a Gaza recovery plan worth $2.45bn (£1.85bn) during a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

The funding will be spread across 66 programmes over six months, and directed at housing, diesel generation and waste removal, among other needs.

But the board admitted substantial donations were still needed, with $18bn pledged but only $280m handed over so far. The board estimates full recovery and reconstruction will require about $71.4bn over the next decade.

Jared Kushner, Gaza Executive Board member and Trump's son-in-law, conceded the project faced "different delays on different things, for whatever reason".

"The goal of today was really just to show you that we're really fully committed to doing it," he told the meeting of board members and stakeholders.

He was joined in New York by US envoy Steve Witkoff, who said the group had made "real progress" over the past year.

"All of the hostages are home. There is a ceasefire, imperfect as it may be, but it still exists. Humanitarian efforts have achieved historic results, with billions of dollars donated and pledged to meet urgent needs and support the long work of recovery," Witkoff added.

In addition to fundraising, the plan faces significant challenges including how to ensure security for those operating in Gaza, overhaul internal governance and find consensus between Israeli and Palestinians officials.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a separate press conference on Wednesday that "a number of countries have stepped forward and pledged financial assistance" and the board was "looking for more that will participate in that".

Michael Eisenberg, an Israeli-American Board of Peace member, told the BBC's Newshour programme what the next steps were likely to be.

"Because it's a war zone, you need to remove unexploded ordnance. And then there are still hundreds of kilometres of tunnels underneath Gaza which need to be destroyed as well.

"Once that's all done, Gazans can get to rebuilding again: whether it's housing, or better sanitation, or other things," Eisenberg said.

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In August, a senior official on the Board of Peace, Nickolay Mladenov, criticised Israel's continuing air strikes on Gaza, as well as the actions of Hamas.

In August, Mladenov warned that a collapse of last October's ceasefire would be "a point of no return" for the region.

At least 1,381 Palestinians, including 300 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since the US-brokered ceasefire began, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.

The Israeli military says five of its soldiers have been killed in combat since the ceasefire and one contractor was killed in an "operational accident".

The Board of Peace was created as part of Donald Trump's 20-point Gaza peace plan, which he unveiled alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September last year.

Hamas agreed to return all 48 remaining hostages being held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and Gaza detainees, and to the idea of handing over the governance of Gaza to Palestinian technocrats.

In July, Hamas said it had accepted a disarmament plan for Gaza which will see it lay down its arms, provided Israel ends "all forms of aggression" and withdraws its forces from Gaza.

But that was later rejected by Netanyahu, who said the military would stay in Gaza until Hamas is "genuinely" disarmed.

The Board of Peace was originally thought to be an international organisation intended to bring peace to Gaza, but later expanded to include conflicts worldwide.

 

SOURCE/AUTHOR : BBC NEWS/Rachel Flynn