Five countries are contributing tens of thousands of troops to an international security force in Gaza, the city of Rafah will be fully rebuilt within three years and the coastline will be developed into a “Mediterranean Riviera”, US President Donald Trump's Board of Peace heard at its first meeting on Thursday.
Delegates also heard that more than 2,000 people have applied to join a new transitional Palestinian police force that will be formed in Gaza, and that several countries have together raised more than $17 billion in relief funds for the strip.
Representatives from nearly 50 countries and the EU sent observers or delegates to the meeting of the board, which has been given a mandate by the UN Security Council but faces questions over whether it aspires to compete against the world body in other areas.
Mr Trump said the UAE, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and Kuwait together had contributed more than $7 billion towards the relief package for Gaza. On top of that, the US would contribute $10 billion, he added.
"We will help Gaza. We will straighten it out. We will make it successful," Mr Trump said. "We will make it peaceful, and we will do things like that in other spots."
Mr Trump last year stunned the world when he said Gaza would be redeveloped into a “Riviera of the Middle East”. Cypriot-Israeli billionaire Yakir Gabay said the ruined enclave would become “a new Mediterranean Riviera with 200 hotels and potential islands”.
But any effort to rebuild the strip would also require the management and removal of 70 million tonnes of rubble from destroyed buildings, as well as the dangerous task of clearing unexploded bombs.
Further complicating the task is the likelihood of bodies being uncovered as heavy machinery starts to break up the rubble.
Gaza has been devastated by more than two years of Israeli attacks on the strip, which killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, and left much of it in ruins.
When Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, they killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
US officials say reconstruction can only proceed if Hamas is disarmed, although they have offered no details on what that would mean in practice.
"The world is now waiting on Hamas and that's the only thing that's right now standing in the way," Mr Trump said.
Diana Buttu, a legal expert and former spokeswoman for the Palestine Liberation Organisation, said the Trump administration’s approach is closely aligned with Israel’s demands.
"This whole issue of disarmament is at most decommissioning, which means turning in light arms, but they're talking about disarmament as though they have some sort of huge army, and they're tying everything to it," Ms Buttu told The National.
"I just don't see that there's any intention whatsoever to do any construction."
Last month Mr Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner presented a master plan for a New Gaza, proposing to transform the war-torn territory into a high-tech commercial centre within three years. The vision includes building high-rise luxury towers, industrial parks and a new port, all dependent on the demilitarisation of Hamas.
Mr Kushner's slideshow drew criticism and ridicule after the Arabic title appeared backwards and disjointed – seen by many as a symbol of how little input had come from Arabic speakers, let alone from Palestinians.
At Thursday's meeting, Mr Trump spoke for nearly 30 minutes before mentioning Gaza. He first promoted the performance of the US stock market and ticket sales for the World Cup, which the US is co-hosting with Mexico and Canada this year, and said he was happy the US Institute of Peace had been renamed in his honour.
New police force
The National Committee for the Administration of Gaza said in a statement on X that a recruitment process “is open to qualified men and women who wish to serve in the police force”.
About 2,000 Palestinians signed up in the first hours after applications went live, Nikolay Mladenov, the Trump-appointed envoy overseeing postwar co-ordination in Gaza, told the Board of Peace meeting.
US Army Maj Gen Jasper Jeffers, who was appointed commander of a UN-authorised multinational peacekeeping force for Gaza, told the meeting that the force's long-term plan is to train about 12,000 police officers for Gaza, and have 20,000 troops for a separate International Stabilisation Force.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said his country would contribute at least 8,000 troops to the ISF.
Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Albania will also contribute troops for the ISF, the meeting heard. Egypt and Jordan will send police officers.
A video presented at the meeting said construction would initially focus on Rafah, with a goal of having it fully rebuilt in three years, and “Gaza connected to the world through an Abrahamic gateway, linking it with Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and extending to India and Europe".
The video said that in 10 years, Gaza will be self-governed and integrated into the region, with “thriving industries and housing for all”. It did not address what would happen to Palestinians in the interim.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, was in attendance.
“I really hope that the beginning of Ramadan will give us all guidance towards peace,” he told Mr Trump. He detailed the UAE's portion of its latest contribution, saying it was providing another $1.2 billion to support Gaza through the Board of Peace.
No Plan B
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the effort must succeed.
“There is no plan B for Gaza,” he said. “Plan B is going back to war. Plan A, the only path forward, is one that rebuilds Gaza in a way of enduring and sustainable peace where no one has to worry about returning to conflict, human suffering and destruction.”
Mr Trump said he supports the UN but it had not been living up to its potential.
“We will be working with the United Nations very closely. We're going to bring them back. I think the United Nations has great potential, really great potential,” he said.
He also said the world would find out within 10 days whether the US is going to take military action against Iran.
“We may have to take it a step further, or we may not,” Mr Trump said of negotiations with Iran. “You're going to be finding out over the next probably 10 days.”
He said Iran “cannot continue to threaten the stability of the entire region,” adding that “bad things will happen” if it doesn't make a deal.
Also attending from the US side was Mr Kushner, US ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz and Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff.
