Trump announced that $5 billion has been promised for Gaza by his Peace Board members

According to him, the pledges are set to be officially announced during the board’s inaugural meeting in Washington on Thursday.

President Donald Trump said on Sunday that members of his newly created Board of Peace have pledged $5 billion to rebuild war-ravaged Gaza and will send thousands of troops to the region’s international stabilization and police force.

He said these pledges will be formally announced on Thursday when the board members gather in Washington for their first meeting.

Trump announced the pledges in a social media post, saying, “The Board of Peace will prove to be the most important international body in history, and it is my honor to serve as its chairman.”

He did not specify which member countries are pledging to contribute to the reconstruction or stabilization force.

But Indonesia’s military said on Sunday that it expects its 8,000 troops to be ready for a potential deployment to Gaza by the end of June as part of a humanitarian and peacekeeping mission. This is the first firm commitment the Republican president has received.

Rebuilding the Palestinian territories will be a daunting task. The United Nations, the World Bank, and the European Union estimate that rebuilding the area will cost $70 billion.

Few areas in the Gaza Strip were spared Israeli bombardment for more than two years.

The ceasefire deal calls for an armed International Stabilization Force to maintain security and disarm the Hamas group, a key demand of Israel. So far, only a few countries have expressed interest in participating in the proposed force.

A US-brokered ceasefire deal on October 10th attempted to halt the more than two-year-long war between Israel and Hamas.

Although most fighting has subsided, the Israeli military has repeatedly carried out airstrikes and frequent live ammunition attacks against Palestinians near occupied territories.

It is unclear how many of the more than 20 members of the Board of Peace will attend the first meeting. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who held talks with Trump at the White House last week, is not expected to attend.

Trump’s new board was initially envisioned as a mechanism focused on ending the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

But it is taking shape in line with his larger objective of resolving global crises and appears to be a new attempt by the US to bypass the United Nations as Trump aims to rebuild the post-World War II international order.

Several major US allies in Europe and elsewhere have declined to attend, suspecting it could be an attempt to counter the Security Council.

Trump also confirmed that Thursday’s meeting will be held at the US Institute of Peace, which the State Department said in December would remain the Donald J. Trump US Institute of Peace.

The building has been the subject of a lawsuit from former employees and officials of the nonprofit think tank since the Republican administration seized the space last year and fired nearly all of the institute’s staff.