Trump says Peace Council to deliver $5B in Gaza reconstruction pledges – National
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that members of his newly formed Peace Council have pledged $5 billion to rebuild war-torn Gaza and will commit thousands of international and police personnel to the area.
The pledges will be formally announced when board members meet in Washington on Thursday for their first meeting, he said.
“The Peace Council will be the most important international organization in history, and it is my privilege to be its Chairman,” Trump said on social media announcing these promises.
He did not specify which member nations were making pledges for reconstruction or would contribute workers to the stabilization force. But Indonesia’s military said on Sunday that up to 8,000 of its troops were expected to be ready by the end of June to be deployed to Gaza as part of a humanitarian and peacekeeping operation. It’s the first firm commitment a Republican president has received.
Rebuilding Palestinian territory will be a difficult endeavor. The United Nations, World Bank and European Union estimate that reconstruction of the area will cost 70 billion dollars. Few areas in the Gaza Strip remained unscathed by Israel’s more than two years of bombardment.
The ceasefire agreement calls for an armed international force to stabilize security and ensure the withdrawal of the terrorist group Hamas, which is Israel’s most pressing need. So far, few countries have shown interest in participating in the proposed movement.
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The October 10 US ceasefire agreement attempted to end the more than 2-year war between Israel and Hamas. While the heavy fighting has subsided, Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked and often fired at Palestinians near military-held areas.
It is not clear how many of the more than 20 members of the Peace Board will attend the first meeting. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who held talks at the White House with Trump last week, is not expected to attend.
Trump’s new board was first seen as a way to focus on ending the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza. But it has happened with his desire to get a much broader mandate to solve the world’s problems and it seems to be the latest attempt by the US to reject the United Nations as Trump aims to reset the international order after World War II.
Most of America’s allies in Europe and elsewhere have refused to join what they suspect could be efforts to oppose the Security Council.
Trump also confirmed that Thursday’s meeting will be held at the US Institute of Peace, which the State Department announced in December that the Donald J. Trump US Institute of Peace remains.
The building is the subject of a lawsuit filed by former employees and management of the nonprofit after Republican administration seized the facility last year and fired nearly all of the facility’s employees.
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