What Trump’s first Board of Peace summit signals about Gaza’s future
Billions of dollars for reconstruction and the promise of an international stabilization force for the destroyed Gaza Strip: these are just two of the promises that emerged from President Donald Trump’s inaugural Peace Council summit.
“We will help Gaza” Asset ” said Thursday at the meeting in Washington, which was attended by representatives from more than 40 countries, including several heads of state.
“We’ll make it right. We’ll make it successful. We’ll make it peaceful. And we’ll do things like that in other places,” he said.
Billions in reconstruction
While Trump initially presented his board as an entity to oversee peace efforts in Gaza, it has since significantly expanded its remit as a United Nations-style organization capable of handling major conflicts around the world.
Some 27 countries have pledged to join, with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Argentine President Javier Milei among the world leaders in attendance. So far, key U.S. allies, including Britain, France, Norway and Sweden, have declined the proposal, with some fearing the body could undermine the United Nations’ role in global peacekeeping efforts.
Despite the board’s expanded scope, the future of Gaza remained in focus at Thursday’s summit, with Trump announcing that members had committed at least $7 billion to rebuilding the destroyed enclave, with funding pledged by countries including Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and Kuwait.
Trump separately announced that the United States had also committed $10 billion to the Peace Council initiative, although it was unclear where exactly that funding would be allocated.
THE The billions of dollars earmarked for reconstruction represent only a “small fraction” of the roughly $70 billion that a joint estimate by the U.N., European Union and World Bank said would be needed late last year to rebuild Gaza, according to Julie Norman of Chatham House, a London-based foreign policy think tank.
More than 72,000 people, including thousands of children, have been killed in the enclave, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, since Israel launched its military offensive. The war follows attacks carried out by Hamas on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage.
More than 80 percent of buildings, including schools, hospitals and homes, are estimated to have been destroyed in the territory, the United Nations Development Program said last year.
UNDP special representative for the Palestinians Jaco Cillers said at least $20 billion would be needed over an initial three-year period and the remainder would be needed over a longer period.
“I don’t think we should be too optimistic about their ability to make a difference on the ground very soon,” Norman, a research associate in Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa program, said ahead of Thursday’s summit.
When they begin, the central objective of the reconstruction efforts will be the reconstruction of Rafah. The southern Gaza Strip city, bordering Egypt, has long been a lifeline for Palestinians and a key portal to the outside world, with a video shown at Thursday’s event outlining a three-year goal to rebuild it.
The plan includes building 100,000 homes for 500,000 residents, as well as $5 billion in infrastructure funding, he said. Ultimately, this number would reach 400,000 housing units with more than $30 billion in infrastructure spending.
Billionaire Yakir Gabay has outlined plans to develop Gaza’s coastline into “a new Mediterranean Riviera with 200 hotels and potential islands”, echoing Trump’s past calls to turn the enclave into a “Middle East Riviera”. Gabay, the son of senior Israeli officials, is expected to serve on Gaza’s Executive Council and is leading a reconstruction campaign.
Gabay said the plan would be “subject to complete disarmament of Hamas”, a key stipulation and sticking point in ceasefire negotiations, with Hamas having not agreed to hand over its weapons. It is unclear when disarmament might take place – nor is it clear whether the stabilization force would be deployed before demilitarization.
Israel has made clear that it wants complete disarmament, including for Hamas to hand over “all” of its weapons, as well as the dismantling of the underground tunnel network and weapons production facilities.
