Several countries which have signed up to Donald Trump’s Board of Peace have contributed more than $7bn (£5.2bn) towards a Gaza “relief package”, the US president has said.
Trump made the announcement during the first meeting of the organisation that many of US’s Western allies have refused to join, fearing the body originally meant to help end the war between Israel and Hamas may be intended to replace the UN.
The second phase of a US-brokered Gaza ceasefire plan includes the disarmament of Hamas and the reconstruction of Gaza.
It “looks like” Hamas would disarm, Trump told participants. However, there are few signs of the Palestinian group disarming. Gazans say it is extending its control over the Strip.
Speaking as the Board of Peace convened on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had “agreed with our ally the US there will be no reconstruction of Gaza before the demilitarisation of Gaza”.
The war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
Israel responded to the attack by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 72,000 people have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
The enclave’s economy is in ruins, with its buildings and infrastructure largely destroyed. The UN estimates the cost of damage at $70bn.
Countries including the UK, Canada, France and Germany have refused to join the Board of Peace that came into being last month.
In an effort to address concerns that the organisation was meant as a way of sidelining the UN, Trump told the board’s first meeting in Washington that “we’re going to be working with the United Nations very closely, we’re going to bring them back”.
Gaza, the US president said, was “no longer a hotbed of radicalism and terror”.
“And to end that, we have today, and I’m pleased to announce that Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, UAE, Morocco, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, and Kuwait have all contributed more than $7bn toward the relief package”.
“Every dollar spent is an investment in stability,” he said, adding that the UN would contribute $2bn for humanitarian assistance, while football body Fifa would raise $75m for soccer-related projects in the Strip.
Nickolay Mladenov, a Bulgarian politician who has been given the title of high representative for Gaza as part of the board, said the process of recruiting a new transitional Palestinian police force had begun and “just in the first few hours we have 2,000 people who have applied”.
But both Israel and the US have insisted that the force is not drawn from the existing Hamas-controlled police without stringent vetting, nor do they want it simply made up of the security forces of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
That means starting from scratch, and the task is daunting.
Mladenov has previously said the Palestinian police force must by the primary security agency in Gaza, assisted by the International Stabilisation Force (ISF), and not vice-versa.
According to the US plan, the ISF will work with Israel and Egypt, along with a newly trained and vetted Palestinian police force, to help secure border areas and ensure the process of permanently disarming non-state armed groups, including Hamas.
But Mladenov said there is little evidence such a force could yet oversee the disarmament of Hamas and other Palestinian factions.
Meanwhile, there was no indication at the meeting that Hamas was prepared to hand over its weapons, despite Trump’s combination of optimism and threat on this point.
So far, Hamas has publicly appeared to make handing over weapons contingent on – at least – Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Progress on this issue is critical because none of Trump’s proposals for reconstruction and governance can take place without a security force on the ground that has broad backing of the Palestinian population, given its role includes assuming a monopoly of force within Gaza.
The Washington meeting itself was characteristic of Trump’s approach to Israeli-Palestinian peace-making over his two terms – involving a future for Palestinians seen often through the lens of real-estate development and wealthy investor funding.
Meanwhile Israel’s leadership has been wary about some of Trump’s efforts, particularly the invitations to his board for Turkey and Qatar, whom Israel does not want to see take a prominent role in decisions on the future of Gaza.
Trump and his team have defended his unconventional approach saying it amounts to “new thinking” to try to solve the conflict.
However, Mladenov has warned that without rapid progress, Gaza will remain split into two territories, one under continuing Israeli occupation and the other under Hamas control – and also split from the West Bank, making a future independent state unviable and failing to secure either Palestinians or Israelis.
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