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Trump names Tony Blair, Jared Kushner to Gaza ‘Board of Peace’
President Donald Trump has named former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to his so-called “Board of Peace”, which is expected to oversee the United States president’s 20-point plan to end Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza.
The White House said on Friday that Blair would be among the board’s founding executive members, alongside Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the US special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.
The other members are Marc Rowan, the CEO of Apollo Global Management; World Bank Group President Ajay Banga; and Robert Gabriel, a US deputy national security adviser.
The board members “will oversee a defined portfolio critical to Gaza’s stabilization and long-term success”, the White House said, including “governance capacity-building, regional relations, reconstruction, investment attraction, large-scale funding, and capital mobilization “.
Bulgarian diplomat and former senior United Nations official Nickolav Mladenoy will serve as the High Representative for Gaza, according to the statement.
The announcement also named members of a Gaza Executive Board, aimed at supporting governance and services in Gaza. Blair, Kushner and Witkoff were also named to the board, along with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Qatari diplomat Ali Al Thawadi and others.
In addition, the White House said that US Major-General Jasper Jeffers has been appointed as Commander of the International Stabilisation Force for Gaza.
Jeffers, who is the current commander of US special forces, would lead the force in a range of areas, including security operations, delivering humanitarian aid and supporting “comprehensive demilitarization”, the White House said.
While the US has long supported Israel’s demand that Hamas surrender all of its weapons, the Palestinian group has said it wants guarantees before doing so.
The Gaza Executive Board will support the Office of the High Representative and a National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), headed up by Ali Shaath, which is expected to handle day-to-day governance in Gaza in lieu of Hamas.
Shaath is a former Deputy Minister of Transportation for the Palestinian Authority, who is from Khan Younis in Gaza but based in the occupied West Bank.
Hamas had previously said it was ready to abandon its governing duties in the enclave as outlined under the Trump plan.
There was no immediate response from Hamas and other Palestinian political factions to the makeup of the Board of Peace’s executive board.
The White House announcement on Friday comes just days after Witkoff announced the launch of the second phase of the US-brokered plan to end Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 71,000 Palestinians since October 2023.
The US administration has said Trump’s plan is “moving from ceasefire to demilitarization, technocratic governance, and reconstruction”.
But Palestinians have questioned what that will mean in practice, as Israel continues to carry out deadly attacks across the coastal enclave and restrict deliveries of humanitarian aid, in violation of the US-brokered ceasefire deal that came into effect in October.
A 10-year-old girl, a 16-year-old boy and an elderly woman were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza on Friday, as members of a planned Palestinian technocratic committee sat down for the first time in Cairo to prepare for the rollout of phase two of Trump’s plan.
The participation of Blair, who served as British prime minister from 1997 to 2007, has also been a major point of contention, after his name was floated as a possible candidate for the Board of Peace months ago.
The former United Kingdom Labour Party leader strongly supported the US-led so-called “war on terror” in the early 2000s, and joined then-US President George W Bush’s 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and another newly-named executive board member, is also a staunch supporter of Israel who previously suggested that Palestinians are incapable of self-governance.
Kushner’s family also has strong ties to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes committed in Gaza.
In 2024, Kushner underscored that Gaza has “very valuable” waterfront property, saying that Israel should “move the people out and then clean it up”.
Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from Washington, DC, noted that some of the people nominated by Trump will be “members of both the Board of Peace and of the executive board for Gaza”.
“It would appear from this structure outline that the Board of Peace has the overarching responsibility, but dealing with the nuts and bolts on the ground in transition will be the Gaza Executive Board,” Hanna said.
Hanna also noted that Mladenov’s role as the High Representative for Gaza shows that there will be a UN component, considering the Bulgarian diplomat was previously the UN’s top envoy to the region from 2015-2020.
“There is a UN component in this, which is very important, given the differences between the US and the UN in recent years,” Hanna said.
“To have the UN viably involved in the reconstruction of Gaza is utterly essential for these boards, the Board of Peace and the administration board, to have a semblance of credibility,” he added.
Criticism of the board also emerged swiftly.
Ashish Prashar, who worked as an aide to Blair between 2010 and 2012, called for rejecting international trusteeship over Gaza, stating in a post on social media that “the future of Palestine should only be decided by Palestinians”.
“It appears the only qualification for joining the Gaza ‘peace board’ is to have a strong track record of endorsing (and arming) Israel’s project of genocide, apartheid and ethnic cleansing, and criminalising those who oppose it,” Prashar told Al Jazeera in a statement.
“Trump’s Gaza ‘Board of Peace’ was just a pilot project. All states who signed off on it are the ones who paved the way for Trump’s next ‘Boards of Peace’ in Venezuela, Ukraine and any other place the extractionist American regime wants to take next,” he said.
[Aljazeera]
Three prison guards attached to the Welikada Prison have been arrested by Borella Police following the death of an inmate on Monday (04).
Spanish police have seized what is thought to be a national record haul of cocaine from a ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
Between 30,000 to 45,000kg were found when the Civil Guard intercepted a freighter in international waters, the body’s main union, the AUGC, announced. It called the move a “historic blow to drug trafficking”.
The vessel was intercepted off Spain’s Canary Islands on Friday and around 20 people were arrested, the AUGC told the AFP news agency. It had travelled from Sierra Leona and was on its way to Libya.
The Civil Guard has declined to give details of the investigation for legal reasons.
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told reporters in Madrid that the seizure was “one of the biggest, not only nationally but internationally”.
The Civil Guard shared a photograph on X showing the drugs stuffed into the hold of the intercepted vessel.
“Today history is being written in the Maritime Service of the Civil Guard,” it wrote.
“Intercepted in international waters the largest known seizure: between 30,000 and 45,000 kg of cocaine on board a freighter.”
While the boat was headed to Libya, AFP reported that the pattern of previous operations suggests that it was due to offload the drugs onto smaller vessels for distribution in Europe.
In January, Spanish authorities made its biggest seizure of cocaine at sea from a ship that was carrying almost 10 tonnes.
[BBC]
Three people have died and a UK national is seriously ill in hospital after a suspected hantavirus outbreak on a small cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
The operator of the MV Hondius ship, tour company Oceanwide Expeditions, said a Dutch husband and wife, as well as a German national, had died but the cause has not yet been established.
However, the Dutch company said hantavirus has been confirmed in the case of the 69-year-old UK national who is in intensive care in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Hantavirus is usually passed to humans from rodents via their faeces, saliva or urine. It can cause severe respiratory illness. Rarely, it can be transmitted between people.
The MV Hondius vessel is currently off the coast of Cape Verde and has 149 people onboard.
Oceanwide Expeditions said there were also two crew members on board “with acute respiratory symptoms, one mild and one severe”.
They were of British and Dutch nationality and both required urgent medical care, it said. It said it had not been established that hantavirus had been confirmed in the pair. And it added that no other persons with symptoms had been identified.
Negotiations are in progress with local authorities following what Oceanwide Expeditions described as “a serious medical situation”.
Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, South Africa’s minister of health, said of the British patient that he was critical and had been admitted to a private facility.
“He’s being taken care of. As you know, hantavirus, like all viruses, don’t have any specific treatment, so they are giving symptomatic treatment and support as much as they could.”
He said health workers and anyone who had contact with the patient would now be traced and tested.
Outlining a timeline, the company said a passenger had become unwell while onboard and died on 11 April.
His cause of death could not be determined, and his body was taken off the ship after it docked at St Helena on 24 April.
The passenger’s wife also disembarked on St Helena and the firm said it was told she had become unwell during the return journey and later died.
“At this time, it has not been confirmed that these two deaths are connected to the current medical situation on board,” it added.
On 27 April, the firm said, another passenger – the British national – became seriously ill and was “medically evacuated” to South Africa.
The 69-year-old remains in a critical but stable condition in Johannesburg after it was confirmed a variant of hantavirus had been identified.
The firm added that on Saturday, a third passenger onboard MV Hondius died.
The cause of death has not been established, Oceanwide Expeditions said. It confirmed the passenger was German.
Oceanwide Expeditions said the cause of the deaths were being investigated.
“The disembarkation of passengers, medical evacuation and medical screening require permission from, and co-ordination with, the local health authorities,” it said. “Local health authorities have visited the vessel and assessed the situation.
“The medical transfer of the two ill persons on board has not yet taken place.”
It added that the option of sailing on to Las Palmas or Tenerife was being considered “to be the gateway for disembarkation, where further medical screening and handling could take place”.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was “acting with urgency” to support the MV Hondius, and thanked South African authorities for taking care of the British patient.
WHO’s regional director for Europe, Dr Hans Henri P Kluge, said: “I am in close contact with our teams to ensure a co-ordinated, science-based response.
“Hantavirus infections are uncommon and usually linked to exposure to infected rodents.
“While severe in some cases, it is not easily transmitted between people. The risk to the wider public remains low. There is no need for panic or travel restrictions.”
According to the South African government, MV Hondius departed from Ushuaia in southern Argentina about three weeks ago, before it completed its journey to Cape Verde, where it is anchored outside the capital, Praia.
It is described as a 107.6m (353ft) polar cruise ship, with space for 170 passengers in 80 cabins, along with 57 crew members, 13 guides and one doctor.
One passenger onboard the MV Hondius, who asked to remain anonymous, told the BBC: “The latest word is that a plane is on its way and once it gets here three people will be evacuated from the ship and flown straight to Europe.
“Then the rest of us will almost certainly sail to the Canary Islands.
“The Cape Verde authorities clearly want nothing to do with us. This is what we’re hearing from the captain and staff. From what I can see the mood (on the ship) is pretty good.
“Only one person has been tested (the one now in South Africa) and he tested positive for hantavirus. So, we don’t actually know yet if the other cases are that or something unrelated.
“If they are all hantavirus then the transmission is a bit mysterious. We’ve been informed that there are no rodents on board, and person-to-person transmission is difficult/rare.
“Hopefully the other patients on board will be tested soon and then we’ll know better what’s going on.”
President of the Cape Verdean Public Health Institute, Maria Da Luz, said passengers would not be disembarking in Cape Verde in order to protect the local population, Cape Verde’s media outlet A Nacao reports.
Oceanwide Expeditions said strict precautionary measures were in process on board, including isolation measures, hygiene protocols and medical monitoring.
“All passengers have been informed and are being supported,” it said.
“Oceanwide Expeditions is in close contact with those directly involved and their families, and is providing support where possible.”
Microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles told the BBC the time between people being exposed to hantavirus and showing symptoms could be anywhere from one to eight weeks.
“With this incubation period are we going to see more people coming down with the disease in the next days and weeks?”
The UK Foreign Office told the BBC it was monitoring reports, and ready to support British nationals.
Hantavirus was in the headlines last year after the wife of Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman died from a respiratory illness linked to hantavirus in March 2025.
[BBC]
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