US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” has shrunk its Gaza “recovery plan” from rebuilding territory to a temporary camp of “portable cabins” under Palestinian administration, police and a small international security force.
The pilot scheme will be located in the so-called buffer zone along the ceasefire line near Rafah, according to a Guardian investigation published on Thursday. Its blueprint reflects little of what Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, presented in his “free market Gaza” slideshow in January, which assured basic infrastructure within 100 days.
No construction or preparatory work has begun for the scheme through the International Stabilisation Force (ISF), a United Nations-mandated multinational peacekeeping force establised by the 2025 Gaza peace plan.
A logistical base for the ISF is nearly complete at the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza, and the force is expected to be trained in Egypt with troops from Morocco, Kosovo, and possibly Albania and Kazakhstan. It will take months to train them, and a legal framework for their presence remains under negotiation with the Israeli government.
The pilot scheme was devised two weeks ago in Cyprus by members of the Board of Peace, the Trump administration, the Tony Blair Institute, and the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza.
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Israeli troops would withdraw from the ceasefire line, and the camp would be overseen by the ISF and a specially trained Palestinian police force.
Coffers for the pilot scheme are empty or their status is unknown. A scarce amount of the $17bn (£12.6bn) pledged for Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza has materialised.
The Board of Peace is attempting to access some of the $11bn in Palestinian tax revenue, and frozen bank assets seized and withheld by Israel, which has brought outrage from the Palestinian Authority.
Elections on the horizon
The Guardian reports that construction may be scant until the Israeli election on the 27th of October, which could oust Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition government.
Israeli general praises illegal outposts driving Palestinian ethnic cleansing
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Several Israeli officials have suggested that an intensification of the genocide in Gaza is inevitable, whether Netanyahu wins or loses at the polls, because Hamas has not disarmed – although Hamas has repeatedly stated it would be willing to lay down its weapons under certain conditions and took part in negotiations in Cairo over the weekend.
Over 73,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October 2023, when Israel launched its war on Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attacks on Israel. Leading genocide scholars, human rights experts and organisations have concluded that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to a genocide.
South Africa has taken Israel to court at the International Court of Justice for activities they allege constitute genocide, and the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant.
The court also issued warrants for Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes committed during the 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel. They were subsequently assassinated by Israel.
The Board of Peace’s Cairo talks discussed the disarmament of Hamas, considering what entity would receive the surrendered weapons, how they would be stored, and whether assault rifles count as weapons.
Reports from Cairo suggest that disarmament is unlikely so long as Israel continues to carry out air strikes on Gaza.
According to the Guardian, an official familiar with the Cyprus talks reported that the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza was divided over the Rafah pilot scheme.
The committee feared the project would prove divisive among Gaza’s 2.1 million Palestinians and place the majority on a lower-priority tier for aid provisions.
