Trump says Board of Peace members pledged over $5B for Gaza

U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that countries in the Board of Peace will commit more than $5 billion for Gaza’s rebuilding and humanitarian relief at a meeting scheduled for Thursday.

In a post on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump wrote that member states ⁠have also committed thousands of personnel toward a U.N.-authorized stabilization force and local police in the Palestinian enclave.

The U.S. president said Thursday's gathering, the first official meeting of the group, will take place at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace, which the State Department recently renamed after the president.

Delegations from more than 20 countries, including ⁠heads ⁠of state, are expected to attend. The board's creation was endorsed by a United Nations Security Council resolution as part of the Trump administration's plan to end Israel’s war on Gaza.

Rebuilding the Palestinian territory will be a daunting endeavor. The United Nations, World Bank and 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.

Israel and Hamas agreed to the plan last year with a ceasefire ⁠officially taking effect in October, although Israel continued attacks in Gaza, killing more than 590 Palestinians since. Israel’s brutal war on the blockaded enclave killed more than 71,000 people, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7, 2023.

The ceasefire deal calls for an armed international stabilization force to keep security and ensure the disarming of Hamas, a key demand of Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously warned Hamas would be disarmed "the easy way or the hard way, but it will happen."

Hamas has not publicly committed to disarmament, though senior official Khaled Meshal recently suggested the group intends to retain its weapons, stating: "As long as there's an occupation, there's resistance," while adding that armed action against Israel may not be likely "in the next 10 to 15 years."

Thus far, few countries have expressed interest in taking part in the proposed force. Indonesia has said up to 8,000 troops are expected to ready by the end of June for a potential deployment in Gaza. It would be the first country to formally commit troops to the security mission created under Trump’s board.

It is not clear how many of the more than 20 members of the Board of Peace will attend the first meeting. Netanyahu, who held White House talks with Trump last week, is not expected to be there.

While ‌regional Middle East powers including Türkiye, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Israel, as well ⁠as emerging nations such as Indonesia, ⁠have joined the board, global powers and traditional Western ⁠U.S. allies have been more cautious.

Trump's new board was first seen as a mechanism focused on ending the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. But it has taken shape with his ambition for a far broader mandate of resolving global crises and appears to be the latest U.S. effort to sidestep the United Nations as Trump aims to reset the post-World War II international order.