THE ‘Board of Peace’ has issued its first construction contract in Gaza, for a 150-person military outpost to house Moroccan troops.
The contract, not yet finalised, went to Arkel International, a Louisiana firm that has previously worked for the US government in Iraq and elsewhere.
The board is chaired by the president and run by a team including his son-in-law Jared Kushner and his friend Steve Witkoff.
The outpost measures 100 metres by 120 metres and would hold Moroccan troops rotating from a base in Israel.
It sits within the 60% of Gaza under direct Israeli army control, beyond which Israeli forces have imposed a buffer zone.
The source said it lies about a mile from the Israeli border and would have a quick extraction route should the small force come under attack.
The UN resolution authorising the board approved an international stabilisation force, but the legal framework is unfinished and no date is set for deployment.
Morocco has promised a small contingent.
Earlier contract documents showed the outpost as the first phase of a 5,000-person base, with vehicle fighting positions and a raised defensive berm.
The first phase would run to ‘tents and cots for forces to sleep, as well as chemical toilets and handwashing stations.
‘At this phase, this is what we would consider habitable.’
A board official said in an email that the board and the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, a group of Palestinian technocrats installed to run the territory, ‘are in the final stages of preparing several contract awards.
‘None have been finalised’.
‘One prospective contract’ the official said, ‘concerns facilities to support the international stabilisation force (ISF), which will assist in implementing the roadmap’s security and governance arrangements’.
He added: ‘This contract will be one of many that are essential for the future of Gaza.’
Reporting in July showed the original scheme to rebuild the whole territory reduced to a pilot project in the south.
Trump said in February 2025 that the United States would take over and own Gaza, though the agreement setting up the board stopped short of that.
At its first meeting in January, Kushner presented a master plan for a ‘New Gaza’ of gleaming mixed-use waterfront towers.
‘It could be a hope, it could be a destination. A lot of industry,’ he said.
At least 80% of Gaza’s buildings were damaged or destroyed in the war.
Ten months after the ceasefire, most of the territory’s 2 million people are still living in makeshift and unsanitary camps.
