Banga defends World Bank's role on Trump's Board of Peace

By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) - The World Bank is seeking to play a constructive role in aiding Gaza's recovery from the two-year war between Israel and Palestinian militants in the territory, the bank's President Ajay Banga said on Tuesday after protesters disrupted his speech to a think tank.

Banga noted that a United Nations Security Council resolution had called on the World Bank and other financial institutions to work with President Donald Trump's Board of Peace to provide financial resources to support Gaza's reconstruction, including through establishment of a dedicated trust fund.

Speaking at an event hosted by the Atlantic Council in Washington after two protesters urged him to resign from the Board of Peace, Banga underscored the UN resolution's clear direction to work with the body, adding that the global lender was also taking separate actions to support Gaza.

Banga was among a group of people Trump appointed to serve on the board's executive board, along with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. presidential advisers Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, and a number of others.

Trump, the permanent chairman of the board, proposed the initiative in September when he announced his plan to end the war in Gaza and convened a first meeting in February, where he announced that a host of nations had contributed $7 billion to a reconstruction fund for the territory.

Estimates for rebuilding Gaza, which was reduced to rubble after two years of war, range up to $70 billion.

Many questions remain unresolved, including disarmament of Hamas militants and accompanying withdrawal of Israeli troops, the size of the reconstruction fund and the flow of humanitarian aid to the people in Gaza.

"Our role on the Board of Peace is very clear. We are a limited trustee of a trust fund that has been created into which these governments want to put in money to help the reconstruction," Banga said, adding that the bank would hold the funds, but the Board of Peace itself would decide how that money would be used and who would receive it.

Banga said the World Bank already two years ago had created a Palestinian expert group that includes representatives from Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Israel, the U.S. and Europe.

The bank also put money into the equity of the Bank of Palestine to ensure it was available as a financial institution when the crisis was over, he said.

"So what we're trying to do, actually, is to be a constructive part in that role, (to) try to follow that ... UN high council (Security Council) resolution," Banga said, saying the bank's goal was to reconnect Palestine and Gaza with its neighbors digitally and physically, and to facilitate trade.