From the Liveblog of
Thursday, January 15, 2026
Gaza technocratic committee holds 1st meet in Cairo, but diplomat says Israel hobbling it out of the gate
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleJacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
Members of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) held their first meeting today in Cairo, an Arab diplomat tells The Times of Israel.
The 15-member committee of Palestinian technocrats, headed by former Palestinian Authority deputy minister Ali Shaath, was joined by Nikolay Mladenov, who will be overseeing their work on behalf of the Board of Peace headed by US President Donald Trump.
The Arab diplomat says Mladenov is working with various stakeholders in the region to help secure a package of steps aimed at alleviating the Gaza humanitarian crisis in order to boost NCAG’s legitimacy coming out of the gate.
However, the diplomat says that the effort has been marred by Israeli opposition.
“The technocratic committee is just a group of 15 people. They need civil servants, but right now Israel is blocking both those on the Hamas payroll as well as those on the PA payroll,” the Arab diplomat says.
“The same is the case for the police. If Israel doesn’t want those tied to the PA, what’s left are the ones on the Hamas payroll,” the Arab diplomat says.
A US official confirms the Israeli opposition to even lower-level PA involvement in the management of Gaza, but says that the issue will be addressed in the coming weeks, adding that today’s meeting in Cairo was more aimed at “setting the tone for the work that lies ahead.”
The US official says that if the Gaza plan’s mediators can make progress regarding the disarmament of Hamas — which Washington thinks is possible — then Israel will be more flexible regarding a role for the PA in Gaza.
But talks with Hamas on disarmament are still in their initial stages, US officials acknowledged during a briefing yesterday.
The Arab diplomat says that NCAG will have more room to work once the Board of Peace, responsible for overseeing the technocratic body, is unveiled — something the US is aiming to do next week on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The Times of Israel Community.