THE GAZA ‘Board of Peace’ has been announced, with US President Donald Trump as its veto-wielding chairman, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and former UK Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair as two of its members.
Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner will also sit on the body, the White House said in a weekend statement.
The board is intended to drive the second phase of Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan which began under the ceasefire agreement of October 10, 2025, between Israel and the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.
The exact structure of the Board of Peace is still to be clarified but two separate senior boards have been officially unveiled.
One is the ‘Founding Executive Board’, with a focus on investment and diplomacy and including Marc Rowan, the head of a private equity firm, World Bank chief Ajay Banga and US national security adviser, Robert Gabriel.
The other is called the ‘Gaza Executive Board’ and is responsible for overseeing all on-the-ground work of yet another administrative group which is called the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG).
Each member would have a portfolio ‘critical to Gaza’s stabilisation and long-term success’, the White House statement said.
The Board of Peace itself will be made up of heads of government, who have yet to be formally announced, but is expected to include Egypt’s Sisi, Argentina’s Milei and Canada’s Carney.
A separate 15-member Palestinian technocratic committee, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), will be charged with managing the day-to-day governance of post-war Gaza.
Ali Shaath, a former deputy minister in the Palestinian Authority (PA), will head that new committee.
An International Stabilisation Force (ISF) will be deployed to Gaza to ‘train and support vetted Palestinian police forces’, with US Major General Jasper Jeffers heading it to ‘establish security, preserve peace, and establish a durable terror-free environment’.
Trump is demanding that countries contribute at least $1 billion to secure a permanent position on his Gaza Board of Peace, according to its draft charter.
No member state may ‘serve a term of more than three years from this charter’s entry into force’, unless it ‘contributes more than 1,000,000,000 USD in cash to the Board of Peace’, the draft charter says.
The draft gives Trump sweeping powers as chairman.
He decides which countries are invited, approves meeting agendas, calls extra sessions, removes members, and even designates his successor.
While decisions are to be made by majority vote, all require the chairman’s approval.
Settler attacks are ‘systematic policy’
A SENIOR leader in the Hamas Movement warned yesterday that the escalation in settler attacks on citizens in the village of Shalal al-Auja, north of Jericho in the West Bank, is part of a systematic Israeli policy aimed at forced displacement.
Abdul Rahman Shadid, said that the ongoing attacks by settler militias against the Palestinian people and the intimidating of citizens, constricting their daily lives is aimed at imposing a new reality in order to facilitate annexation.
Shadid explained that the daily attacks endured by West Bank governorates, including demolition, vandalism, theft, and organised intimidation, are carried out in full coordination between the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) and settler gangs.
This clearly exposes the brutality of the occupation, its disregard for any laws or norms, and its complete indifference to all international warnings about the grave consequences of persisting in its policy of forced displacement.
He stressed that these ‘crimes and terrorist attacks will not undermine the determination and steadfastness of our people, their resilience on their land, or their adherence to their rights’, which they will never relinquish no matter how much the occupation escalates its repression and aggression.
‘Our people will not allow the occupation’s settlement schemes to pass, regardless of the cost’, he added.
Shadid called on the Palestinian masses to intensify mobilisation and solidarity to confront these attacks, and to strengthen the resilience of residents in the targeted villages and communities.
He also urged human rights institutions and the international community to shoulder their responsibilities, to end the suspicious silence regarding settler crimes, and to act immediately ‘to hold the occupation accountable for its ongoing violations against our people and our land’.