Palestinian technocrats meet in Egypt on Gaza as Trump presses Hamas on disarmament

The newly formed Palestinian technocratic committee tasked with managing day-to-day governance in the war-battered Gaza Strip held its first meeting in Egypt on Thursday, according to local media reports.

All 15 members of the committee arrived in Egypt for discussions shortly after US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff announced the start of phase two of the Gaza ceasefire agreement. The meeting followed consensus among Palestinian factions on the composition of the National Committee for the Administration of the Gaza Strip (NCAG).

The committee is to be headed by Ali Shaath, a civil engineer from Gaza who previously served as deputy minister of planning and international cooperation in the Palestinian Authority, as well as undersecretary at the ministry of transportation and communications.

The NCAG is expected to operate under the supervision of the so-called "Board of Peace", whose formation was announced by US President Donald Trump earlier on Friday and which he is expected to chair.

Members of the Board of Peace have yet to be formally named but are expected to include European leaders, Witkoff, and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. The proposal has drawn sharp criticism from Palestinians, who say it carries colonial overtones and entrenches foreign control over Gaza's future.

Shaath and other committee members were joined at Thursday’s meeting by Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov, who is expected to supervise the committee’s work on behalf of the Board of Peace.

Few details have emerged about the substance of the meeting. However, a US official told The Times of Israel that discussions were focused on "setting the tone for the work that lies ahead".

According to the Israeli newspaper, committee members also held a call with Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and former adviser.

Both figures were involved in US efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza, where more than 71,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel's military onslaught. Although a ceasefire has technically been in place since 10 October, Israeli strikes have continued on an almost daily basis. At least 451 Palestinians have been killed since then in serious violations of the truce.

The full list of committee members is expected to be made public in the coming days. Sources say all are originally from Gaza, though not all have lived in the enclave in recent years. The committee faces major political obstacles, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet firmly opposed to any role for Palestinians linked to Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.

On Wednesday, Shaath told Palestinian media that his immediate priority was to provide housing for Gaza's 2.2 million residents, most of whom have been displaced or left homeless by the war.

Trump said in a social media post on Thursday that he was "backing" the technocratic committee to govern Gaza, while also renewing pressure on Hamas to disarm.