The Trump-led 'Board of Peace' is expected to hold talks with Hamas next week on transferring power to a new government for the Gaza Strip as part of efforts to advance the ceasefire agreement , Tony Blair has said.
The former British prime minister and member of the body’s executive board told BBC Radio 4 that negotiations were expected with the Palestinian group to advance the ceasefire agreement reached in October last year.
As part of the internationally-backed deal, the Gaza Strip is supposed to see the establishment of an interim government and the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces, which currently occupy 60 percent of the disputed enclave.
Hamas is also supposed to disarm but has refused to do so amid ongoing Israeli occupation and attacks which have killed more than 900 people since the October ceasefire. Over the past two weeks, Israel has killed top Hamas military commanders Mohammed Odeh and Izz al-Din al-Haddad.
On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had given directives to occupy 70 percent of Gaza . Netanyahu is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes committed during the genocidal campaign.
"We put together a plan that ended the war. At the moment, you’ve still got some fighting going on, you’ve still got a dire situation for the people," Blair told the BBC ’s Nick Robinson.
"Actually, this next week we will have further negotiations with Hamas because we need to move this new government into Gaza, and we need Hamas to agree that this government should be in control of Gaza," he continued.
Members of the interim government which are supposed to oversee Gaza’s daily affairs were appointed in February, but they have yet to relocate to the Gaza Strip, with Israel preventing their entry.
"It’s a very tricky, difficult situation, but if the plan is allowed to work, it will give the Gazan people a fresh start with a new Palestinian government and a large amount of funding behind it," Blair added.
US President Donald Trump announced the multinational 'Board of Peace' in January. It has 28 founding members – including Israel, Arab and Muslim countries – and its role will be to oversee post-war Gaza.
The body, led by Trump himself, includes an executive board made up of 14 international diplomats, including Blair.
The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that the board's fund remains empty , despite member countries pledging money. 'Neocolonial project' The board has been criticised by many Palestinians as a neo-colonial move to have control of the Gaza Strip, and it especially faced backlash when Blair was appointed given his role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Anas Altikriti, the secretary-general of the Global Alliance for Palestine, took aim at Blair after his comments of upcoming talks with Hamas.
"Tony Blair with his track record of being in the pockets of some really gross and ugly regimes…is something that ought to, in normal circumstances, push someone to actually hang their head in shame, and to appear as little as possible in the media," he told The New Arab on Thursday.
Altikriti said Blair’s comments on Gaza were problematic on several levels. He said that Trump's initial establishment of the Board was "idiotic" and a "totally invalid proposal", which he described as a "shameful" venture.
Since the Board was established, Trump has tried to extend its mandate beyond Gaza, with reports that the US president was setting it up as a replacement for the United Nations.
Altikriti said the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza would ease if aid were allowed to enter the territory through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, which Israel has repeatedly sabotaged since the ceasefire. Aid groups say the humanitarian assistance that has entered so far falls far short of what Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people desperately needs.
"It’s horrible, its repugnant, and its ugly, but it reflects the moral standards of those who have joined, starting with Trump himself, then running through the extensive list of people who have chosen to uphold and support this disgusting project, rather than merely open the gates for aid trucks from Rafah," Altikriti said.
He added that the Palestinian issue should be up to the Palestinians to decide.
More than 72,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Gaza since the Israeli offensive began in October 2023. Thousands more are unaccounted for and believed to be buried beneath the rubble.