Trump names Tony Blair, Jared Kushner to Gaza ‘Board of Peace’

Published On 16 Jan 2026Donald Trump has named former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to his so-called “Board of Peace“, which is expected to oversee the United States president’s 20-point plan to end Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza.The White House said on Friday that Blair would be among the board’s founding executive members, alongside Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the US special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.The other members are Marc Rowan, the CEO of Apollo Global Management; World Bank Group President Ajay Banga, and Robert Gabriel, a US deputy national security adviser.The board members “will oversee a defined portfolio critical to Gaza’s stabilization and long-term success”, the White House said, including “governance capacity-building, regional relations, reconstruction, investment attraction, large-scale funding, and capital mobilization”.The announcement comes just days after Witkoff announced the launch of the second phase of the US-brokered plan to end Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 71,000 Palestinians since October 2023.The Trump administration has said Trump’s plan is “moving from ceasefire to demilitarization, technocratic governance, and reconstruction”.But Palestinians have questioned what that will mean in practice, as Israel continues to carry out deadly attacks across the coastal enclave and restrict deliveries of humanitarian aid, in violation of the US-brokered ceasefire deal that came into effect in October.