Trump to Host Gaza ‘Board of Peace’ Meeting on Feb 19

According to Axios on Friday, which cited a US official and diplomats from four participating nations, the White House is organizing the first leaders meeting for President Donald Trump’s alleged “Board of Peace” in regard to Gaza on February 19.

According to Axios, the meeting’s intentions, which would also serve as a conference to raise money for Gaza restoration, are still in the early stages and could alter.

The US Institute of Peace in Washington is the proposed venue for the meeting, the report further stated, adding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Trump at the White House on February 18, one day prior to the scheduled meeting.

Requests for comment were not answered by the US State Department or the White House.

Many analysts were worried that Trump’s announcement in late January of the board he would chair, which he claims will focus on resolving international disputes, would weaken the United Nations.

Trump’s offer to join that initiative has been met with cautious responses from governments worldwide. Many of Washington’s longstanding Western allies have so far refrained from joining, although some of its Middle Eastern allies have.

The board and its partner nations were authorized by a UN Security Council resolution passed in mid-November to deploy an international stabilization force in Gaza, where a precarious ceasefire was established in October under a Trump plan approved by Israel and the Palestinian militant organization Hamas.

Trump’s proposal for Gaza, which was unveiled late last year, called for the board to oversee the interim government in Gaza. Trump later declared that it would be extended to address international problems.

Many human rights experts have criticized the board for not having a Palestinian representative and claim that Trump’s supervision of a board to monitor the affairs of a foreign territory resembles a colonial framework.

Since the truce started in October, more than 550 Palestinians have been killed, and the precarious ceasefire in Gaza has been routinely broken.

Over 71,000 Palestinians have been dead, a hunger crisis has been brought on by Israel’s attack on Gaza since late 2023, and the entire population of Gaza has been internally displaced.

It amounts to genocide, according to a UN investigation, several rights experts, and academics.