Hurdles to Trump’s push for Gulf to fund Gaza reconstruction

When US President Donald Trump spoke in Israel’s Parliament, ahead of the signing of his Gaza peace plan earlier in October, he thanked “Arab and Muslim nations” in advance for pledging “tremendous amounts of money” to rebuild the devastated Palestinian territory.

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That appeared to resolve the question – to the US leader at least – of how to find the US$70 billion (S$90.9 billion) the UN says is needed to reconstruct the territory destroyed by Israel’s two-year military campaign against Hamas.

But persuading the likes of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to hand over the funds is unlikely to be as easy as Mr Trump claimed.

While the deep-pocketed and energy-rich trio worked on and enthusiastically endorsed the peace plan, all three have specific reservations about unconditionally providing financing, according to several people with knowledge of the thinking of Gulf officials.

“In my experience, it’s easy to pledge funding, but realising it and putting up the money is something else,” said Dr Ibrahim Saif, a former Jordanian energy and planning minister who now works as a consultant in the country.

Egypt is hosting an international Gaza reconstruction conference in November and Gulf states will be among the lead participants, bringing the issue of reconstruction funding to the fore.

In the meantime, other postwar concerns, such as whether Israel will abide by the deal and Hamas disarms, are taking precedence among officials overseeing the early weeks of a fragile truce.

Saudi Arabia, which rallied Arab and Muslim states to push for a ceasefire and spearheaded efforts along with France to win more international recognition for Palestinian statehood, is constrained in terms of what it can commit financially to Gaza, said the people, who asked not to be identified to speak freely.