A White House official told reporters that the Trump administration was committed to helping residents of Gaza with or without help from the Palestinian Authority, which boycotted an international summit held at the White House this week geared toward helping the coastal enclave, The Times of Israel reported Wednesday.

“Our goal is to get the PA in control of Gaza, if that’s possible,” the official told reporters. “If the PA is unwilling to, or unable to, implement the projects, then we would have to proceed without them.”

The meeting to help Gaza was organized by the Trump administration, which sees helping Gaza as being “essential” to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Times characterized the summit as “unusual,” as it was attended by a representative of Israel, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, but also representatives of a number of Arab countries with which Israel doesn’t have diplomatic relations, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar, which is close with Hamas, the terrorist group that rules Gaza.

While a number of proposed projects to help Gaza do not require the participation of the PA, an official of the United States government said that it would not be “an ideal situation.”

“Most countries expressed their regret the Palestinian Authority was not in the room,” an American official said. “A great deal of time was spent discussing Hamas’s failures in Gaza and the need for the Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza.”

The PA did not participate in the discussions to help Gaza as it has been boycotting the United States since President Donald Trump announced his plan to move the embassy to Jerusalem

[Photo: AFP News Agency / YouTube]