The funding is expected to support 66 programmes over a six-month period, covering areas such as housing, diesel-powered electricity generation and waste clearance.
However, the board acknowledged that significantly more funding would be required, noting that $18bn has been pledged but only $280m has so far been received. It estimates that complete reconstruction and recovery of Gaza could cost around $71bn over the next 10 years.
The board did not announce when reconstruction activities would begin in Gaza, where Trump’s proposed plan to end the conflict has made limited progress nearly a year after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement.
The issue of Hamas’ disarmament remains one of the major obstacles.
The Palestinian group has indicated a willingness to surrender its weapons in return for a phased withdrawal of Israeli forces from the 60% of Gaza currently under Israeli occupation. Israel, however, maintains that Hamas must completely disarm before its troops withdraw.
Fighting has also persisted in Gaza amid the stalemate, with Israeli strikes reported almost daily. Conditions remain extremely difficult for the estimated 2.1 million people living in the territory.
Jared Kushner, a member of the Gaza Executive Board and Trump’s son-in-law, acknowledged that the Gaza Recovery Programme had experienced “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 board members and other stakeholders at the meeting.
He was accompanied in New York by US envoy Steve Witkoff, who said “real progress” had been achieved 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.
Beyond securing funding, the programme faces several challenges, including ensuring the safety of personnel working in Gaza, reforming its internal governance and reaching agreement between Israeli and Palestinian authorities.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a separate news conference on Wednesday that “a number of countries have stepped forward and pledged financial assistance” and that the board was “looking for more that will participate in that”.
Michael Eisenberg, an Israeli-American member of the Board of Peace, told the BBC’s Newshour programme about the likely next steps.
“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.
In August, the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, criticised Israel’s continued air strikes on Gaza as well as actions by Hamas.
Mladenov warned that the collapse of last October’s ceasefire would represent “a point of no return” for the region.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, at least 1,408 Palestinians, including more than 300 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire began. The United Nations considers the ministry’s figures reliable.
The Israeli military says five of its soldiers have died in combat since the ceasefire, while a contractor was killed in what it described as an “operational accident”.
Reconstruction has yet to commence in Gaza, where an estimated 80% of structures have been destroyed or damaged during the war, leaving more than 60 million tonnes of debris.
The UN estimates that more than 1.9 million people, representing about 90% of Gaza’s population, have been displaced, with many forced to move several times. About 1.2 million people are currently staying in tents or makeshift shelters, with restricted access to clean water and sanitation.
The Board of Peace was established as part of Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace proposal, which he unveiled alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September last year.
