Gaza Board of Peace takes shape as Israel raises objections to plan

Donald Trump’s so-called Board of Peace for Gaza is beginning to take shape, even as Israel voiced rare objections to parts of the US president’s plan to build on the fragile ceasefire in the region.  

Argentine President Javier Milei and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney are set to become founding members, they announced on Saturday.  

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was also invited to be a founding member, the head of his communications office said on X, while AFP reported that Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi was mulling whether to take part.  

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been invited, a Brazilian official said, as has Jordan’s King Abdullah II, the state-run Petra News Agency said. Hungarian leader Viktor Orban has accepted an invitation to join the board, the country’s foreign minister said on Sunday. 

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Italy has also been asked to join. “I believe Italy can play a leading role, and we are ready to do our part in building the peace plan,” Meloni told reporters on Sunday during a visit to Seoul. 

Meanwhile, the make-up of the Gaza committee, which would sit under the broader umbrella of Trump’s new Board of Peace, drew swift criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

“The announcement regarding the composition of the Gaza Executive Board, which is subordinate to the Board of Peace, was not coordinated with Israel and runs contrary to its policy,” Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday. Netanyahu has asked his foreign minister to contact US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the matter. 

The White House on Friday announced a first executive panel to include Rubio, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner — both of whom are also closely involved in Ukrainian peace talks — as well as former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, before the formation of the overall board. It also appointed a second executive committee, which is expected to do the bulk of the work in remaking Gaza and includes Turkey’s foreign minister and a diplomat from Qatar, identified on Sunday as Ali Al Thawadi, minister for strategic affairs in the prime minister’s office. 

The second panel is the one Netanyahu objected to, since he considers Qatar and Turkey too close to Hamas and unlikely to remake the coastal strip in the way Israel wants. It was a rare open disagreement with Trump from the Israeli leader, who’s consistently sought to portray his relationship with the US president as one of unity and full coordination.  

In the invitation shared by Milei, Trump wrote that the effort “will bring together a distinguished group of nations ready to shoulder the noble responsibility of building LASTING PEACE, an Honor reserved for those prepared to lead by example, and brilliantly invest in a secure and prosperous future for generations to come.” The partners are set to convene “in the near future,” he added. 

Trump is trying to deliver on his 20-point plan for a sweeping and potentially decades-long transformation of Gaza, which has been mostly destroyed by two years of war between Israel and Hamas. He announced the formation of the board Thursday on social media, but didn’t say who would be on it. “I can say with certainty that it is the Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled at any time, any place,” he said at the time.  

As Hamas still retains control of almost half of Gaza and refuses to disarm, the prospect of a durable and prosperous peace is uncertain. The Iran-backed group is still to return the remains of the last hostage taken during the October 2023 attacks that triggered the conflict, a critical part of the first phase of the Trump proposal. 

Despite Israeli misgivings about the sequencing, the Trump administration has announced the start of the second phase, including the formation of a 15-member technocrat government to replace Hamas rule in Gaza. At the same time, the White House sent out invitations to prospective Board of Peace constituents. The board’s chief executive officer, Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov, was earlier tapped for the role.  

An International Stabilization Force, made up of soldiers from different nations that’s also part of the Trump plan, is slated to follow at a later date. For now, it’s unclear which countries might contribute personnel and on what terms. The US has said it won’t put boots on the ground in Gaza. 

Israel has threatened to resume the war if the ISF fails to persuade or compel Hamas to lay down its weapons. The militant group has shown no inclination to do so since the ceasefire was agreed to in mid-October. Still, the Trump administration has signaled determination to achieve “full demilitarization” of the entire Gaza Strip.