Gaza technocratic panel unlikely to enter Gaza this week, with no date set for start of operations

The National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) is not slated to enter the Strip this week, as little progress has been made toward the commencement of the technocratic committee’s operations, two Arab diplomats tell The Times of Israel.

The 12-member panel was unveiled roughly four weeks ago and has since been holding meetings in Cairo in preparation for its entry into Gaza.

US President Donald Trump’s administration and the Board of Peace’s High Representative for Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, who oversees the NCAG, had aimed for the technocratic committee to enter the Strip shortly thereafter.

However, an Arab diplomat says the NCAG will not enter Gaza until it is equipped with the necessary tools to govern the enclave.

It’s still unclear how much international funding the NCAG will have to operate, which Palestinians in Gaza it will be able to hire as civil servants, where the panel will be based and how its protection will be ensured, the diplomat said.

Mladenov has been working to advance a series of measures to boost the humanitarian situation on the ground, which would help boost the NCAG’s legitimacy, according to the Arab diplomat. The measures include an increase in temporary shelter materials for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still living in unstable tents.

But those Palestinians — the vast majority of the Strip’s population of 2 million — are located in the western half of the enclave still under Hamas control, and Israel has pushed back on easing restrictions over those areas before the terror group gives up its weapons.

Hamas has refused to do so, and disarmament talks are still in their early stages.

The Arab diplomat says there is no timeline for the NCAG’s entry into Gaza and that the panel will only do so when it is equipped to govern and the appropriate environment exists in the enclave.