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Officials said the body’s leadership could be announced as soon as Wednesday, but U.S. efforts to shape postwar Gaza by disarming Hamas have faced hurdles.
Jan. 13, 2026Updated 7:35 p.m. ET
The United States is close to naming a panel of Palestinian technocrats to oversee daily life in the devastated Gaza Strip, where many are desperate to rebuild after two years of war.
A former Palestinian deputy minister for planning, Ali Shaath, has been chosen to lead the committee, according to four officials and six others briefed on the decision. They discussed it on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Several people briefed on the plans say the announcement could come as soon as Wednesday, when Palestinian officials from Hamas and other factions gather in Egypt for talks.
American officials say they hope that establishing the committee will help erode Hamas’s grip on Gaza, which the group seized full control of in 2007.
The cease-fire plan that was backed by President Trump and that went into effect in October called for the committee to be apolitical, engaged largely in providing public services, and that the staff be independent Palestinian experts.
But it is far from clear whether it can succeed.
Officials have so far said little publicly about who will join the committee, how exactly it will administer Gaza and who might finance its operations.
