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Donald Trump says ‘Board of Peace’ members pledge $5 billion for Gaza rebuild. All about the first meeting
According to Donald Trump, the pledges for Gaza rebuild will be formally announced when board members gather in Washington on Thursday for their first meeting.
US President Donald Trump said Sunday that members of his newly created Board of Peace have pledged $5 billion toward rebuilding war-ravaged Gaza.
The Republican leader also revealed that the member states will commit thousands of personnel to international stabilisation and police forces for the territory.
“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,” Trump said in a social media posting announcing the pledges.
According to Trump, the pledges will be formally announced when board members gather in Washington on Thursday for their first meeting.
While the US President did not detail which member nations were making the pledges for reconstruction or would contribute personnel to the stabilisation force, Indonesia’s military said on 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. It's the first firm commitment that Trump has received.
Who will attend the first ‘Board of Peace' meeting?
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 met with Trump at the White House 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 around his ambition for a far broader mandate to resolve global crises and appears to be the latest US 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.
Venue of the meeting
Donald Trump also confirmed that Thursday's “Board of Peace” meeting will take place at the US Institute of Peace, which the State Department announced in December would be renamed the Donald J Trump US 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.
The daunting task of rebuilding Gaza
Rebuilding the Palestinian territory will be a daunting endeavour. The United Nations, the World Bank, and the European Union estimate that reconstruction of the territory will cost $70 billion. Few places in the Gaza Strip were left unscathed by more than two years of Israeli bombardment during the country’s war with Hamas in the Palestinian enclave.
The October 10 US-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 have frequently fired on Palestinians near military-held zones.
The ceasefire deal calls for an armed international stabilisation force to keep security and ensure the disarmament of the militant Hamas group, a key demand of Israel. Thus far, few countries have expressed interest in taking part in the proposed force.
