The “Peace Council” fund created by Donald Trump’s administration to finance projects in Gaza has not received a single dollar from donors four months after its launch, the Financial Times reports.
According to the newspaper, the fund has become stuck in a legal and political deadlock, slowing plans for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.
The participating countries had been expected to contribute about $7 billion in aid for the region, while Trump additionally pledged another $10 billion in U.S. funding.
However, FT sources said the special fund managed by the World Bank remains empty.
“Not a single dollar has come in,” one source told the newspaper.
According to the Financial Times, instead of using the UN-approved World Bank mechanism, the council began accepting donations directly through a JPMorgan account.
A Peace Council representative told FT that “multiple options” had been created for receiving funding, including the World Bank mechanism, but donors had “preferred to use other options.”
He also said financial reporting would be provided to the organization’s executive board—which includes members of the Trump administration and Trump advisers—“at the time deemed appropriate.”
Although the council has already begun holding tenders for security and reconstruction work in Gaza, no contracts have yet been signed.
“A lot of this is because we are not yet operating in Gaza,” the organization’s representative said, adding that Hamas has still not been disarmed.