US President Donald Trump said Board of Peace member states will announce at an upcoming meeting on Thursday a pledge of more than $5 billion for reconstruction and humanitarian efforts in Gaza.
President Donald Trump said on Sunday that members of the newly formed Board of Peace have pledged $5 billion for the reconstruction of war-hit Gaza and committed thousands of personnel to an international stabilisation and policing mission in the territory.
He said the commitments would be formally unveiled on Thursday when the board convenes in Washington for its inaugural meeting. In a social media post announcing the development, Trump described the initiative as historic. “The Board of Peace will prove to be the most consequential International Body in History and it is my honour to serve as its Chairman,” he wrote.
The president did not specify which countries had pledged funds for reconstruction or agreed to contribute troops to the proposed stabilisation force. However, Indonesia’s military said on Sunday that up to 8,000 personnel could be prepared by the end of June for a possible deployment to Gaza as part of a humanitarian and peacekeeping mission, marking the first clear commitment secured by the administration.
The creation of the board was endorsed through a United Nations Security Council resolution as part of the Trump administration’s framework to bring an end to the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Israel and Hamas agreed to the plan last year, with a ceasefire taking effect in October. Since then, both sides have accused each other of breaching the truce. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, more than 590 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the territory since the ceasefire began. Israel has reported that four of its soldiers were killed by Palestinian militants during the same period.
While several regional players — including Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Israel — along with countries such as Indonesia have joined the board, major global powers and longstanding Western allies of the United States have adopted a more cautious stance.
Reconstruction is expected to be extensive and costly. Estimates by the United Nations, the World Bank and the European Union place the cost of rebuilding Gaza at roughly $70 billion, after more than two years of Israeli bombardment left large parts of the enclave damaged or destroyed.
Under the terms of the ceasefire arrangement, an armed international stabilisation force is to be established to maintain security and oversee the disarmament of Hamas, a central demand of Israel. So far, only a limited number of countries have signalled willingness to participate in the proposed mission.
The Oct. 10 U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal attempted to halt a more than 2-year war between Israel and Hamas. While the heaviest fighting has subsided, Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes and frequently fire on Palestinians near military-held zones.
It is not clear how many of the more than 20 members of the Board of Peace will attend the first meeting. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who held White House talks with Trump last week, is not expected to be there.
Trump’s new board was first seen as a mechanism focused on ending the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. But it has taken shape with his ambition for a far broader mandate of resolving global crises and appears to be the latest U.S. effort to sidestep the United Nations as Trump aims to reset the post-World War II international order.
Many of America’s top allies in Europe and elsewhere have declined to join what they suspect may be an attempt to rival the Security Council.
Trump also confirmed that Thursday’s meeting will take place at the U.S. Institute of Peace, which the State Department announced in December it was remaining the Donald J. Trump U.S. Institute of Peace.
The building is the subject of litigation brought by former employees and executives of the nonprofit think tank after the Republican administration seized the facility last year and fired almost all the institute’s staff.
With inputs from agencies
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