Key Takeaways
- The Gaza recovery plan under US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace has been significantly reduced.
- Instead of reconstructing the entire territory, a small pilot project in the south is now envisioned.
- Some steps have been taken, but substantial progress is not expected before Israel holds elections on 27 October.
The Gaza recovery plan under US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace (BoP) has been significantly scaled back, with the project now focusing on a small pilot project in the south of the territory. According to The Guardian, this shift from an ambitious reconstruction effort to a limited-scale initiative reflects the challenges faced by the board.
Initially proposed in September 2025 and formally established in January, the BoP was designed to reconstruct Gaza under US government auspices. However, the plan has been reduced to a pilot project that aims to construct a small temporary camp for a fraction of Gaza’s population, with Palestinian administration, police, and a small contingent of the International Security Force (ISF).
The new project is not expected to take shape before the end of 2026. However, some steps have been taken in recent weeks to initiate the process. Moroccan and Kosovan officers have arrived in Israel to form the cadre of the ISF, which will protect the pilot camp. A logistics base near Kerem Shalom is under construction to house the force’s vehicles, equipment, and other material.
Construction on the pilot camp, situated near Rafah, has yet to begin. Satellite images show disturbed earth but no new structures. An unnamed diplomat quoted in The Guardian stated that substantial progress is not expected before Israel holds elections on 27 October, which could bring down Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition government.
The diplomat further noted that the BoP had 'no choice but to make the most of very limited progress,' as an admission of failure would open the way for extreme factions in the Israeli government with radically different plans for Gaza. The report cited concerns that Netanyahu, facing electoral defeat, may launch another full-scale offensive in Gaza ahead of the October vote.
Israeli officials have repeatedly suggested that a return to war is inevitable due to Hamas’s refusal to disarm. However, Hamas has said it is willing to lay down its weapons under certain conditions and participated in negotiations in Cairo over the weekend on possible disarmament mechanisms. Nevertheless, the Palestinian resistance group is unlikely to disarm as long as Israel continues to carry out strikes in Gaza and occupies large swathes of the territory.
In January, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner pledged that the US would continue its efforts to rebuild Gaza under the BoP framework, but the current situation indicates a significant shift from the original plan. The Guardian reported that some steps have been taken, but substantial progress is not expected before Israel holds elections on 27 October.
Satellite images of the area show disturbed earth but no new structures. Substantial progress is not expected before Israel holds elections on 27 October.
The Guardian, Report
The aim is just to keep something going, keep the ball in play, because if you stop there are others with a more extreme agenda just waiting to jump in and take over, and they are talking about wholesale population transfer and colonisation.
An unnamed diplomat, Quoted in The Guardian
