Donald Trump may be the self-appointed chairman of the Board of Peace, but in the territory the board is trying to reshape, Hamas remains the dominant political and military force. That fundamental reality — unchanged since the ceasefire was agreed — was the backdrop against which the board held its inaugural meeting Thursday in Washington.
Hamas has not disarmed. It has made vague and conditional commitments, linking any disarmament to the establishment of a Palestinian state and insisting its forces need to retain weapons for law and order during any transition. Discussions about placing weapons in sealed depots or surrendering heavy arms while keeping handguns for policing remain far from any formal agreement.
The transitional Palestinian governing committee named by the US — led by former Palestinian Authority deputy minister Ali Shaath — cannot enter Gaza without Israeli permission, and cannot function without Hamas handing over power. Mladenov, the committee’s overseer, said at the Munich Security Conference that the situation was embarrassing the committee and rendering it ineffective.
Trump claimed this week that board member countries had pledged $5 billion for reconstruction and thousands of peacekeeping personnel. Those pledges have not been documented. No agenda for Thursday’s meeting was made public. Indonesia has trained up to 8,000 soldiers for a potential stabilization force but has said they will not take part in Hamas disarmament.
The board faces a fundamental challenge: it has assembled a multinational coalition, made ambitious announcements, and set out a sweeping vision, but the organization that controls Gaza has not agreed to any of it. Until Hamas’s role in the territory is fundamentally altered — through disarmament, governance transfer, or some other mechanism — the board’s plans remain aspirational rather than operational.