Israel / Palestine

US Major General Jasper Jeffers said the Gaza “International Stabilization Force” will first deploy to Rafah and hopes to eventually have 20,000 soldiers. Indonesia, which has pledged 8,000 troops, will serve as deputy commander of the force.

U.S. President Donald Trump told the first meeting of his Board of Peace on Thursday that nations had contributed $7 billion to a Gaza reconstruction fund that aims to rebuild the enclave once Hamas disarms, an objective that is far from becoming a reality.

Members of the UN Security Council have warned that Israel's efforts to expand control in the West Bank posed a threat to prospects of a two-state solution. The situation is "deteriorating rapidly" in the occupied West Bank, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo said in a briefing late on Wednesday.

The UN has the funds and capacity to scale up relief and reconstruction operations in Gaza but does not have the necessary access to carry out these vital tasks, Alexander De Croo, the head of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), told journalists on Tuesday.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called on Wednesday for Israel to rescind recent measures to expand control over Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank. “This is yet another step by the Israeli authorities towards rendering a viable Palestinian State impossible, in violation of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination,” he said. 

Indonesia says it is preparing up to 8,000 soldiers for deployment to Gaza, the first country to do so as part of phase two of the ceasefire agreement brokered by the United States late last year. The army chief of staff, General Maruli Simanjuntak, said training for the soldiers had already begun, and that they would focus on medical and engineering roles in Gaza. Indonesia has joined President Donald Trump's Board of Peace, which was announced last month.

Fresh airstrikes and shelling across the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours have put civilians at renewed risk and compounded months of hardship, the UN said on Tuesday, warning that humanitarian needs continue to outpace access and capacity.

At least 24 people were killed by Israeli fire in Gaza on Wednesday after fighting resumed in several areas of the coastal enclave, according to the territory's health authority.

The US has told the UN Security Council that further Israeli troop withdrawals from Gaza will depend on Hamas disarming under an internationally funded weapons buyback program. US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz said the initiative would include permanently decommissioning weapons through an agreed process overseen by independent international partners. He noted that the work to urge compliance from the militant group will be overseen by the so-called “Board of Peace,” which consists of 26 countries, alongside the US-sponsored technocrat authority the Palestinian National Committee.

[…] Branded as a more agile instrument for conflict resolution, the Board risks normalising parallel structures that centralise power while weakening multilateral legitimacy. Gaza brings these concerns into sharp focus. It is both the Board’s most immediate test case and a prism through which its broader implications for international governance can be gauged.