Members of his newly created Board of Peace have pledged $5 billion toward rebuilding war-ravaged Gaza and will commit thousands of personnel to international stabilisation efforts and policing of the enclave, US President Donald Trump said on Sunday.
The pledges will be formally announced when board members gather in Washington on Thursday for their first meeting, Trump said in a social media post announcing the pledges.
“The Board of Peace will prove to be the most consequential international body in History, and it is my honor to serve as its chairman,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Trump also confirmed that Thursday’s meeting will take place at the US Institute of Peace, which the State Department announced in December it was renaming the Donald J. Trump US Institute of Peace.
Details of member nations that were making the pledges for the reconstruction or that would contribute personnel to the stabilisation force are yet to be disclosed.
However, Indonesia’s military said Sunday that up to 8,000 of its troops are expected to be ready by the end of June for a potential deployment to Gaza as part of a humanitarian and peace mission, the first firm commitment that Trump has received.
The arduous task of rebuilding Gaza
With the heaviest fighting subsided following a 10 October ceasefire deal and a few places in the war-torn territory left unscathed by more than two years of Israeli bombardment, the United Nations, World Bank and European Union estimate that reconstruction of Gaza will cost around $70 billion.
The ceasefire deal calls for an armed international stabilization force to keep security and ensure the disarming of the militant Hamas group, a key demand of Israel. Thus far, few countries have expressed interest in taking part in the proposed force.
The US-brokered ceasefire deal attempted to halt a more than 2-year war between Israel and Hamas, yet 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 but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who held White House talks with Trump last week, is not expected to be there.
At first, Trump’s new board was planned to put a stop to the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza. However, as Trump seeks to reshape the post-World War II international system, analysts say it has taken shape with his vision for a far broader mandate of addressing global crises and seems to be the latest US attempt to avoid the UN.
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.
