The United Kingdom is hosting a three-day Gaza reconstruction conference as it jostles to stake a role in the peace process emerging from the latest largely brokered by the United States.
The conference was announced by Downing Street ahead of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s arrival in Egypt on Monday for a co-chaired by US President and Egyptian President
While Starmer has not attended the conference, convened at the UK Foreign Office’s Wilton Park conference center, it has been led by the UK’s Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer, as an assembly of “representatives from businesses, civil society and governments, to convene crucial planning and coordination efforts for postwar Gaza,” according to Downing Street
No consensus on plans to rebuild Gaza
Downing Street said the event would be attended by representatives from Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. World Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development officials are also taking part. Both the US and Israel are notable omissions.
“The advantage to the planned configuration is that the representatives are more likely to reach a consensus,” said Richard Caplan, a Professor of International Relations at Oxford University, UK.
So far, the Trump Administration has been the major driver of the ceasefire and has the greatest influence over Israel’s premier, Benjamin Netanyahu.
It also matters because Trump’s plans for reconstruction have changed throughout his second presidency: from models involving either temporary or permanent displacement of Gazans, to US custodianship of the region.
Right now, the US President’s 20-point peace plan highlights his current thinking, among them that Gazans can remain, be given free movement from their territory, and that the enclave would be temporarily governed by a “technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee” and overseen by a Trump-chaired transitional committee.
Yet in his opening address to the Wilton Park conference, Falconer said the UK supported a Palestinian-led recovery and an . It’s unclear how that tallies with Trump’s vision for the region. Egypt, with support from Germany, also plans to hold a reconstruction summit, with el-Sissi calling on his US counterpart to participate in that process.
Early talks, but key players needed for Gaza
The UK bringing together global recovery funders and other powerful nations to plot a course on Gaza’s reconstruction could be beneficial. The World Bank previously set the reconstruction bill at $50 billion (€43.25 billion), and any reconstruction effort will require detailed planning, likely over decades.
But talks will need to give way to actions quickly, with Gaza amid a major humanitarian crisis as a result of the two-year conflict. Experts DW spoke to pointed to the UN as being the best place for this.
“What you want under the auspices of the United Nations, with buy-in from the United States, is a committee established which will oversee and sequence aid, infrastructure, development, over a 10-year period,” said Clive Jones, a Professor of Middle East Security expert at Durham University, UK.
Such discussions would also need to include parties that have been vehemently opposed to working together, namely Israel and Hamas.
Though ‘ role in a future Palestinian state has been rebuked by the US, Israel, UK and others, the power and influence wielded by the organization on the ground cannot be ignored.
“It has to include Hamas as a political movement,” Jones told DW. “In other words, you are recognizing Hamas will have to be present in some form, it may not be called ‘Hamas’ but it needs […] to be present in some way and it needs to involve the Israelis.
“The issue will be getting those parties to talk to one another.”
Reconstruction conferences are a starting point
At its current conference, the UK may be able to convert talk into financial action, but its best diplomatic strength may simply be in keeping the White House focused on outcome delivery.
“I think the British, with all due respect, should just stick to playing behind the scenes, which is their best role in calming the Americans and ensuring that the Americans keep an interest in the process,” said Sultan Barakat, an expert in post-conflict reconstruction based at the Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar. Barakat has advised nations and other groups on processes to reconstruct Gaza stretching back to the 2000s.
In the meantime, conferences like those led by the UK or Egypt can provide a starting point for diplomatic coordination, though concrete actions are unlikely to emerge.
“Every nation is allowed to talk to their friends and see how they coordinate their action, and that’s good,” Barakat said.
The crucial step forward, he told DW, was in the United Nations providing a “protection force” that could allow Palestinians to reform their internal political situation — currently torn between Hamas, Fatah and a dysfunctional Palestinian Authority.
“[A protection force] must be mandated by the United Nations to act as a firewall between the Palestinians and the Israelis and, very importantly, to allow the Palestinians the time to construct their own politics,” he added.
The emerging consensus among experts emphasizes the importance of allowing the Palestinians to chart their own course forward, both in terms of a reconstituted political structure and with the day-to-day needs of reconstruction overseen by local bureaucrats and international partners with the patience to see through a decades-long recovery.
Edited by: Rob Mudge
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