Summary:

The Board of Peace published a six-month recovery plan for Gaza costed at about US$2.45 billion on 23 September 2026. It was presented at a briefing beside the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The plan sets out 66 programmes, to run from the day a Palestinian-led interim committee is allowed into the territory, and prices humanitarian shelters, debris clearance and winter relief alongside a temporary detention facility and a military base at Rafah.

Israel maintains that its forces will not withdraw from Gaza until Hamas is fully disarmed. Eight Arab and Islamic states say decommissioning must run alongside withdrawal rather than precede it. That disagreement over sequence is why the second phase of the peace plan has not begun and why no work under the recovery plan has started.

Of tens of billions of dollars pledged for Gaza at earlier conferences, about US$280 million has been transferred. Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, told the General Assembly on 24 September that the transitional period must not become open-ended. No start date has been fixed.

Detailed Report

1. The Board of Peace Presents Its Recovery Plan in New York

The Board of Peace, the transitional authority for Gaza established under United Nations Security Council Resolution 2803, presented its recovery plan to donors and governments in New York on 23 September, on the margins of the General Assembly.

Tony Blair, the former British prime minister and an executive board member, opened by setting the plan against the state of the territory. About 70% of Gaza was destroyed, he said, and its population was living in a small part of the Strip. There had been significant humanitarian improvement, but for many people the situation remained severe.

Resolution 2803 was founded on President Donald Trump's 20-point plan for ending the war. Blair said it had produced a coherent architecture for Gaza's future, in four parts. An interim Palestinian-led government would govern, chosen for capability rather than ideology and supported by the Office of the High Representative. A new security apparatus would demilitarise the territory: the International Stabilization Force (ISF) and a new civil police force, both agreed with Israel. A detailed programme of renewal and reconstruction would follow. The question of a Palestinian state would not be resolved now, he said, "but the option will remain open, subject to Israel's security and the legitimate desire of Palestinians to govern themselves."

2. The Plan's Terms: Shelter, Debris Clearance and a Detention Facility

The plan runs for six months from the day the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) is allowed into the territory. It sets out 66 programmes at about US$2.45 billion across six clusters: infrastructure, peace and security, human development, digital transformation, economic acceleration and law. The costs are indicative and subject to change.

Infrastructure is the largest cluster at about US$1.205 billion. Humanitarian shelters take about US$400 million of that, and debris clearance and unexploded ordnance about US$275 million. Human development accounts for about US$303 million, with winter relief the first item at about US$80 million — US$20 million financed and US$60 million in kind. An Emirati neighbourhood, funded entirely in kind, would house 50,000 people now living in tents.

Peace and security accounts for about US$885 million. A temporary detention facility and a mission-support base at Rafah are priced at about US$275 million each. The Rafah base would be hardened infrastructure for 5,000 ISF personnel at full capacity.

Dr Ali Shaath, chief commissioner of the NCAG, presented the plan and said the recovery had to be led by Palestinians working in genuine partnership. "Our compass remains clear: Palestinian ownership, protection of rights, geographic unity, inclusion of every community, transparency in every process, and adaptability in the face of changing needs." Each programme, the plan states, "has been assessed, costed, and sequenced."

Gaza's public services are currently run across three separate payrolls, alongside United Nations agencies and international organisations, and Shaath said that fragmentation would not rebuild the territory. He asked donors to fund a single plan, administered through a World Bank mechanism with public dashboards, on the formula "one authority, one law, and one weapon." The money for winter relief was still needed.

3. Why the Second Phase Has Not Begun

The ceasefire signed at Sharm el-Sheikh in October 2025 ended the fighting under a United States-brokered agreement, and divided what followed into phases. The first was to deliver humanitarian access, early-recovery supplies and the rehabilitation of critical infrastructure. The second was to deliver the substance of Resolution 2803: disarmament, Israeli withdrawal, the deployment of the ISF and a vetted police force, and reconstruction at scale. Nearly a year on, the second phase has not begun.

Israel's position, restated through the summer, is that its forces will not withdraw until Hamas is fully disarmed. A Board official told the New York Post after the August meetings that both sides had accepted there would be no Israeli redeployment until disarmament was complete and Gaza demilitarised.

Eight Arab and Islamic states put the two together rather than in sequence. In a joint statement issued in New York on 21 September, they described the Board's road map for the second phase as an integral part of the plan, "including decommissioning alongside full Israeli withdrawal, the deployment of the International Stabilization Force (ISF), the assumption by the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) of its responsibilities throughout the Gaza Strip, and the launch of Early Recovery and Reconstruction across Gaza."

Blair set out the scale of the disarmament task directly.

"Beneath Gaza City there are hundreds of kilometers of tunnels containing weapons stockpiles and weapons factories. The new government cannot govern unless that infrastructure is systematically destroyed. Hamas has agreed that this will happen, and that is a milestone."

Turning that agreement into a credible stage-by-stage plan was now the Board's most urgent challenge, he said.

Jared Kushner, an executive board member, put the end state as "a fully demilitarized Gaza, governed responsibly by Palestinians." What remained, he said, was to carry the agreement out with the United States military, regional forces and the Israel Defense Forces. Steve Witkoff, the United States special envoy, told the briefing there would be no shortcuts. "We have no plan B."

Nickolay Mladenov, the High Representative for Gaza, set out how entry would proceed. All parties must first honour the commitments they made at Sharm el-Sheikh. The NCAG would then audit how Gaza is actually run — its people, its finances and its services — so that it knew what it was taking over. Only then would the ISF, the committee and the police enter, and recovery begin at scale. The committee's authority would grow with every weapon accounted for and every Israeli force that moved back to the perimeter.

"I want to be very clear that we're not bound by a calendar or dates. We're bound by verification," he said. Each step had to be earned and checked before the next began. The committee, he said, was "a bridge, not a permanent administration."

4. Troops Trained, Police Vetted, No Order Given

Major General Jasper Jeffers, commander of the ISF, said the force now had a headquarters running around the clock with more than 50 international military planners. Survey operations had already been run in the Rafah sector, and temporary basing for a first increment was complete. A first wave of about 500 troops from Morocco and Kosovo had been trained and was ready to deploy. Follow-on contingents from Albania, Kazakhstan and other countries were in training, and a Kosovo weapons-neutralisation team was already with him.

The force would enter Gaza sector by sector, he said, though the objective was the whole Strip. It would go into a sector, decommission or neutralise weapons and tunnels, hand responsibility to the committee and its vetted security, and so allow the Israel Defense Forces to withdraw. None of that has begun. The first wave is ready and has not been ordered in.

Recruitment for the new Gazan police has drawn more than 250,000 applicants, of whom 19,000 have been vetted and have begun initial training, Jeffers said. The recruits were to complete it in Egypt, but Axios reported that Israel has not allowed them to leave Gaza.

5. Support With Conditions: Displacement, Statehood and the Transition

On 21 September in New York, the foreign ministers of Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, Türkiye and Saudi Arabia rejected expulsion or forced displacement. Gaza must remain part of Palestinian territory, they said, and implementation had to lead toward a sovereign Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. Tangible progress on the ground, they added, would strengthen the credibility of the Board of Peace.

Abbas addressed the General Assembly by video on 24 September, after the United States again declined him a visa. He had welcomed the 20-point plan and Resolution 2803. Nearly a year on, he said, the next stage had not materialised on the ground and the second phase needed acceleration. The transitional period, due to end in 2027, "must not be allowed to become a permanent or open-ended situation." Any transition had to lead to the reunification of Gaza and the West Bank under one government and one legitimate armed force.

Hamas replied the same day through its spokesman, Hazem Qassem. It was ready to implement the road map agreed with the Board and had taken the necessary steps. The obstruction lay with the Israeli government's refusal to abide by the agreement, he said, "as well as the inability of the Board of Peace and its representative, Mladenov, to compel Israel to implement it." He asked the United States and the Board to facilitate the committee's entry and the deployment of international forces.

Conclusion

The Board of Peace published a priced six-month plan and told donors that preparation was over. The plan names who would deliver the work, what it would cost, and the order in which entry should occur. It does not authorise that entry. Israel will not withdraw before disarmament, the states backing the plan say the two must move together, and the first wave of the stabilisation force has not been ordered in. As of publication, no start date has been fixed.