According to the newspaper, Blair was the only name proposed for council membership following Trump’s announcement of his twenty-point plan to end the war between Israel and Hamas in late September. However, broad Arab and Islamic opposition emerged against Blair’s appointment due to his support for the 2003 Iraq invasion, along with concerns that his presence in the new council structure might marginalize the Palestinian side. According to media reports, a close associate of Blair stated that he “will not be a member of the Peace Council,” explaining that “the council will include country leaders and current officials, while Blair is expected to join the smaller executive committee, alongside Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff, and officials from Arab and Western countries.” A knowledgeable source revealed that “Blair might be assigned a future role within the administrative structure for Gaza, given the support he enjoys from both Washington and Tel Aviv.” The newspaper reported that a new executive committee is expected to be headed by former Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov, which will coordinate between the Peace Council and the Palestinian technical committee overseeing the sector’s administration. This comes as U.S. President Donald Trump plans to announce the transition of the peace process in Gaza to its second phase and reveal the new governance structure for the sector before the Christmas period. U.S. officials and a Western source told Israel’s Channel 12 that the formation of the international force and the new governance structure for Gaza is in its final stages, expressing hope to unveil it within two to three weeks. Since the signing of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas on October 13, Hamas handed over living Israeli prisoners to Israel along with several bodies, while releasing around two thousand Palestinian prisoners and bodies of Palestinian prisoners. Egypt hosted a peace summit in Sharm El-Sheikh in October, chaired by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump, with participation from leaders of delegations from around 20 countries. Over two years of continuous Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, the sector was devastated from the far south to the north, destroying the medical sector, schools, universities, places of worship, infrastructure, and vital resources supporting life in the sector. Fifteen vital sectors in Gaza were destroyed, and the attacks resulted in large numbers of civilian casualties and injuries among Palestinians.
