Israel/Palestine

Source: The Guardian

Washington backing plan for Tony Blair to head transitional Gaza authority

Reported proposal for international body to oversee Gaza for up to five years counters UN-backed plan for faster transition to Palestinian rule

Patrick Wintour in New York
Thu 25 Sep 2025 21.03 BST
Last modified on Fri 26 Sep 2025 02.30 BST

The White House is backing a plan that would see Tony Blair head a temporary administration of the Gaza Strip – initially without the direct involvement of the Palestinian Authority (PA), according to Israeli media reports.

Under the proposal, Blair would lead a body called the Gaza International Transitional Authority (Gita) that would have a mandate to be Gaza’s “supreme political and legal authority” for as long as five years.

According to reports in Haaretz and the Times of Israel, the plan is modelled on the administrations that initially oversaw Timor-Leste and Kosovo’s transitions to statehood. The proposal suggests that Gita could at first be based in el-Arish, an Egyptian provincial capital near Gaza’s southern border, and would eventually enter the territory accompanied by a UN-endorsed, largely Arab multinational force. The plan envisions “the eventual unifying of all the Palestinian territory under the PA”.

Under the plan, Palestinians would not be made to leave the territory, as had been feared would occur under previous US proposals to develop it as the “Gaza Riviera”.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/25/washington-backing-plan-for-tony-blair-to-head-transitional-gaza-authority