The White House is preparing to convene the first leaders’ meeting of President Donald Trump’s Gaza-focused “Board of Peace” on Feb. 19 in Washington, Axios reported on Friday, citing U.S. officials and diplomats from countries involved in the initiative.
The plans for the meeting, which would also be a fundraising conference for Gaza reconstruction, are in early stages and could still change, Axios reported.
The meeting is planned to be held at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, the report added, noting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet Trump at the White House on Feb. 18, a day before the planned meeting.
The White House and the U.S. State Department did not respond to requests for comment.
In late January, Trump launched the board that he will chair and which he says will aim to resolve global conflicts, leading to many experts being concerned that such a board could undermine the United Nations.
Governments around the world have reacted cautiously to Trump’s invitation to join that initiative. While some of Washington’s Middle Eastern allies have joined, many of its traditional Western allies have thus far stayed away.
A U.N. Security Council resolution, adopted in mid-November, authorized the board and countries working with it to establish an international stabilization force in Gaza, where a fragile ceasefire began in October under a Trump plan on which Israel and Palestinian group Hamas signed off.
Under Trump’s Gaza plan revealed late last year, the board was meant to supervise Gaza’s temporary governance. Trump thereafter said it would be expanded to tackle global conflicts.
Many rights experts say that Trump overseeing a board to supervise a foreign territory’s affairs resembled a colonial structure and have criticized the board for not including a Palestinian. Israel has repeatedly violated the fragile ceasefire in Gaza, killing over 550 Palestinians since the truce began in October.
Israel’s assault on Gaza since late 2023 has killed over 71,000 Palestinians, caused a hunger crisis and internally displaced Gaza’s entire population.
Multiple rights experts, scholars and a U.N. inquiry say it amounts to genocide. Israel calls its actions self-defense to a Hamas attack that killed 1,200 on Oct. 7, 2023.
