U.S. and Palestinian officials told The Times of Israel Wednesday that the United States has approved a coordinating committee between the Palestinian Authority and the Gaza Board of Peace. While Israel is a member of the Gaza Board of Peace, the PA has not been invited to join.

Members of the new panel include Mohammed Mustafa, prime minister of the PA, and Nickolay Mladenov, high representative of the Gaza Board of Peace. The PA had initially expended efforts to be included in both the Gaza Board of Peace, which will oversee reconstruction of Gaza, and the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, which will manage Gaza’s daily affairs, while Israel worked to keep the PA out. Although the PA failed to secure a position for a PA representative on the Gaza Board of Peace, Ali Shaath, a Gaza-born technocrat, is currently presiding over NCAG as chief commissioner.

As recently as April 2025, Shaath boasted in a podcast interview about participating in terrorist activities in Khan Younis, where he is from, refused to acknowledge the existence of Israel and spewed hateful rhetoric about Israel.

The PA expects to be involved in reconstruction efforts in Gaza, especially in light of the fact that it controls access to land registration documents that will be needed for compensation when reconstruction begins on land belonging to Gazans. The PA will also be involved in the administration of Gaza’s day-to-day affairs. Hamas is supposed to cede civil authority to NCAG, but that committee will likely need the support of PA civil servants and police.

A major goal of the PA and reason for its desire to stay involved is to reunify Gaza with the Arab-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria under its aegis.

Israel has argued that the PA should not be given any role until it has agreed to undergo reforms, such as ending its “pay for slay” program. Despite promises and reassurances to end the Martyrs’ Fund, as it calls it, the PA has not only continued paying out stipends to terrorists and their families — the more Israelis murdered the higher the stipend — but has also enshrined the program in its new draft constitution for a new Palestinian state.

The PA has countered that it can’t implement any reforms while $4 billion of its tax revenue remains frozen by Israel. The governing body can’t pay its employees, which it said threatens its collapse.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas was not invited to attend the Board of Peace meeting, but Shaath of NCAG is expected to attend.