Trump has been criticised for offering seats on the board to Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, both leaders wanted for alleged war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
A UN report has raised “concerns” over ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Deadly Israeli attacks have continued across Gaza while its forces and settlers have carried out more raids and land grabbing in the occupied West Bank.
Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has killed at least 72,069 people and wounded 171,728 since October 2023. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023, attacks and about 250 were taken captive.
Norway plans to host a meeting this spring of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHCL) for Palestinian aid, but is not joining US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry says in a statement.
Trump told the first edition of his peace initiative that $7bn has been raised for a Gaza reconstruction fund and that Norway had agreed to “host an event bringing together the Board of Peace”.
Norway has for decades led the AHCL, which was set up in the wake of the 1993-1995 Oslo Accords that sought to bring to an end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, although peace in the region remains elusive.
“The United States, together with the European Union, are vice-chairs of this group… We are in contact with the US about how we can also talk about the peace plan for Gaza there,” a spokesperson for Norway’s Foreign Ministry said.
“Norway has clearly communicated that we will not become a member of the Board of Peace, and this position remains firm.”
Trump’s speech focused on his perceived successes in Gaza and other conflicts, claiming “war in Gaza is over” despite repeated ceasefire violations, and calling the Board of Peace the “most consequential … in terms of power and in terms of prestige”.
The US has pledged $10bn to the board’s efforts, with Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Morocco, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates contributing around $7bn.
Troops eventually comprising up to 12,000 police and 20,000 International Stabilization Force soldiers, will be allocated across five sectors and deploy to Rafah first, said General Jasper Jeffers.
World Bank Group President Ajay Banga said the bank will serve as the limited trustee of donor funds to “manage the donor contributions coming in”.
A promotional video blamed Hamas for Gaza’s destruction but made no mention of Israel, featuring seemingly AI-generated images of high-rises, trains and streets resembling US suburbs in an imagined future Gaza.
Trump also cast ire on Norway and Iran, saying that Norway “screwed” him by not awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize, and warning “bad things will happen” if Iran doesn’t strike a deal amid a buildup of US military forces and hardware in the Gulf.
The inaugural meeting of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza Board of Peace has ended to the sounds of the Village People’s hit “YMCA”.Israel’s top diplomat says Board of Peace addresses ‘heart of the problem’
Gideon Saar has offered praise for the Board of Peace, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined in February after initially opposing the plan.
The addition has piqued concerns about increased Israeli influence over the board, with the US regularly seen as acting on Israel’s behalf in the UN Security Council.
While Trump has appointed a Palestinian technocratic committee to oversee daily operations in Gaza, there is no Palestinian representation on the wider board, which critics say will block the potential to find solutions to longstanding intractable political issues that risk the continued resurgence of violence.
Saar, however, said Trump had offered “the first plan to address the root of the problem”, pointing to the “disarmament of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, demilitarisation of Gaza Strip and deradicalisation of Palestinian society there”.
“We support it and are working and will work toward its success,” he said.
Protesters say ‘no concrete plan’ possible without Palestinian participation
Dozens of people are gathered outside the United States Institute for Peace, where the Board of Peace meeting is under way, to protest Israel’s participation amid the exclusion of Palestinian voices.
A mobilisation of police nearby indicated Trump’s motorcade will “soon be on the move”, Al Jazeera’s Manuel Rapolo reported from the scene, as protesters chanted “Gaza is not for sale” and “Free Palestine”.
“The underlying narrative here is that without discussing the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people, there is no concrete plan that could be put in place”, Rapolo said.
The board has repeatedly offered its vision for a Gaza development plan. But without the voice from “any sort” of Palestinian authority, protesters are adamant that “there can’t be a road to peace”, Rapolo said.
Turkiye’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, says Ankara is ready to commit troops to Gaza.
“We can also contribute meaningfully to the rehabilitation of health and education sectors as well as the training of the police force. In addition, we are prepared to provide troops to the International Stabilization Force,” he said.
Netanyahu has explicitly opposed Turkiye sending troops to Gaza.
Fidan also referenced the continued violations of the Gaza “ceasefire”, which experts said are likely to hinder foreign force deployment.
“The humanitarian situation remains fragile and ceasefire violations continue to occur. A prompt, coordinated and effective response is, therefore, essential,” Fidan said.
As countries announced their participation in Trump’s Board of Peace, for the US’s European allies, accepting the invitation was more complex.
While the UK, Italy, and Germany are sending representatives and observers to today’s meeting, they have rejected a formal invitation to join the board.
Last month, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper announced that the UK would not be signing up to the board and described it as a “legal treaty that raises much broader issues” than ending the war in Gaza, also referring to concerns over the invitation to Russia.
Italy also declined an offer to join the board over constitutional incompatibility, which states that Rome can only join organisations on equal terms with other states. Germany also cited constitutional restraints as a reason why it had not accepted the offer.
France rejected its invitation to join the board and is not sending a representative after citing concerns that Trump was seeking to usurp the United Nations’ functions and that the US president would have extensive powers beyond transitional governance of the Gaza Strip.
The prime minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, has just spoken at the inaugural meeting, still under way in Washington, DC.
“The board, under President Trump’s leadership, will advance the full implementation of the 20-point plan without delay, ensuring fairness and justice for both Palestinians and Israelis,” Sheikh Mohammed says.
“In this spirit, Qatar pledges $1bn in support of the board’s mission, aimed at reaching a final resolution that fulfils Palestinian aspiration for statehood and recognition, and Israel’s aspiration for security and integration.”
Worth noting is the fact that Sheikh Mohammed made mention of Palestinian statehood, which no US official present at this meeting did during their remarks. A two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine issue has long been the US’s stated policy, one shared by the UN and other major US allies.
Top Israeli government officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have publicly said that there will be no Palestinian state since Israel began its genocide in Gaza in October 2023.
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There has been a lot of bias injected in all of this process, particularly when the video talks about how Gaza was destroyed in the first place.
It made no mention of the Israeli military’s role in its destruction, as well as the lapses in the “ceasefire”.
So it already calls into question just how fair this process is going to be with regard to the Board of Peace, even though we heard from Jared Kushner, the Middle East envoy there, just a moment ago, saying that if Jews and Muslims work together towards a common goal, there will be peace and togetherness.
When you hear other comments that are so clearly one-sided, it’s hard to imagine.
A video about the Board of Peace’s plans for the Gaza Strip has been aired, hailing Trump’s “unparalleled achievements” and showcasing real estate renderings.
The narration began by claiming, “The war Hamas began has left Gaza in ruins.”
“Yet from these ruins, a new future will rise,” the narrator said as clips played of Trump shaking hands with leaders, Vance giving speeches, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and people appearing to celebrate in the streets with Israeli and US flags.
The board’s goal is to “fully” rebuild Rafah in three years, curb unemployment and make Gaza “fully connected to the world through an Abrahamic gateway”, the narrator continued.
More footage of Gaza’s imagined future rolled, including apparently AI-generated images of trains and construction projects, rows of high-rise buildings and cars travelling down streets resembling US suburbs.
“This is the framework for Gaza’s rebirth: secure. prosperous and peaceful,” the narrator concluded.
World Bank Group president says will serve as ‘limited trustee’ managing donor funds
Ajay Banga has also addressed the summit, saying the World Bank will serve as the “limited trustee” of donor funds, meaning it will “manage the donor contributions coming in… and then we help to manage that money while it stays with us”.
Banga said that “under the direction of the Board of Peace, we disperse the money for reconstruction and development projects in Gaza”.
He said that the Board of Peace “takes the ownership of ensuring that the right kind of financial, legal and oversight mechanisms are being put in place”, but that the World Bank has assigned a financial controller “on a secondment basis… to ensure that we can try and help build the best standards in this process”.
“Now this is just the beginning. This work is going to need two or three things that the World Bank Group can bring to the table. The first is leveraging of public finance”, he said.
“The second is, we can de-risk private investing. And the third is we have people on the ground [with] expertise and knowledge of doing this kind of work in other markets”, he said.
Marc Rowan, the CEO of Apollo Global Management and an executive board member of the Board of Peace, has spoken about the estimated investment potential of Gaza.
“The potential here is tremendous,” Rowan said, claiming that the Gaza coastline alone offers “$50bn in value on a conservative basis”.
The board first plans to start building 100,000 homes for about 500,000 people plus $5bn in infrastructure, Rowan said, while “gathering Gaza’s productive assets in one unified structure”.
“It just needs to be unlocked and financed,” he said.Trump has frequently described Gaza as a real estate venture.Commander of international stabilisation force outlines plan for deployment
General Jasper Jeffers, who has been appointed commander of the International Stabilization Force (ISF) planned for Gaza, has outlined the plan for deployment.
Jeffers said “US military experts” have been preparing the infrastructure for the ISF for months, operating from a joint operation centre in Israel.
“Our plan is for the ISF to be assigned in five different sectors, each sector receiving one ISF brigade. In the short term, we plan to deploy to the Rafa sector first, in addition to the training of police,” he said.
He said the midterm plan “is to continue to expand sector by sector, all moving to our long term, 12,000 police and 20,000 ISF soldiers”.
Jeffers also said that Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Albania have committed troops to the force, while Egypt and Jordan have agreed to train police.
He added that Indonesia has “accepted the position of deputy commander for the ISF. With these first steps, we will help bring the security that Gaza needs for our future prosperity and enduring peace”.
Experts have warned that ISF deployment will likely be a non-starter without an end to Israeli ceasefire violations and a voluntary Hamas disarmament agreement.
Nickolay Mladenov announces creation of ‘office of the high representative for Gaza’
The Bulgarian politician and diplomat, who is currently serving as the director-general of the Gaza Board of Peace has just announced the creation of the new office, under the board’s auspices.
The high representative “will be there to support, to guide and assist the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, hopefully removing the roadblocks they will be facing in taking over civilian and administrative control of the Gaza Strip”, he said.
He also claimed the office will be working in “full transparency” and in close coordination with Israel and “Palestinian institutions”.
Head of Trump-appointed Palestinian committee says ‘operating in extremely difficult conditions’
Ali Shaath, the head of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), a Palestinian technocratic committee appointed by the Trump administration to handle daily operations in Gaza, has spoken.
Shaath pointed to the “extremely difficult conditions” in the enclave.
“Large parts of the Gaza Strip are severely damaged, destroyed. … Humanitarian needs are acute. Law and order remain fragile,” he said.
He said his committee would focus on four areas.
“Firstly, restore security via professional civilian police under one authority, one law, … including training and developing 5,000 Gazan police to be deployed in 60 days,” he said.
“Secondly, revive economic activities and livelihoods, creating decent jobs, especially for our young population. … Thirdly, ensure sustainable emergency relief. … Fourthly, restore basic services, including electricity, water, health and education” and movement, he continued.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has offered a few remarks, claiming that Israel’s war on Gaza proved “impossible” to fix through existing international mechanisms.
“This was a very unique crisis in Gaza, one that existing international institutions could not solve or figure out,” he said, noting that Trump’s approach sought to “think outside the box”.
“We hope that this can serve as a model for other complex and difficult situations, but right now the focus is on this one,” the secretary said.In Gaza, he said, “We have a long ways to go.”