Trump’s Board of Peace to gather for first meeting
Good morning and welcome to the US politics live blog. The inaugural meeting of US president Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, his initiative to bring an end to the war in Gaza, begins today with representatives from more than 45 countries expected to attend.
But some major European allies, including the UK, Germany and France, have turned down their invitations, wary of the group’s operations and its potential to rival the UN. There is also no Palestinian representation on the board, while Israel holds a seat.
The summit comes almost three months since the UN security council approved a US-backed ceasefire plan, which included a two-year mandate for the Board of Peace to oversee the demilitarisation and reconstruction of Gaza. Key issues that remain unresolved include the disarmament of Hamas, the withdrawal of Israeli troops in Gaza, the scale of reconstruction and the flow of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
Trump announced ahead of the meeting that board members have pledged $5bn (£3.7bn) for the reconstruction efforts, a fraction of the $70bn (£52bn) needed to rebuild the Palestinian territory that has been devastated by two years of conflict.
The ceasefire in Gaza remains fragile, with Israel and Hamas accusing each other of violating the agreement. Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israeli troops withdrew to positions behind a so-called yellow line, although they remain in control of more than half the territory.
Key events
In Gaza, the charity Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, said it will continue working in the Palestinian territory for as long as possible following an Israeli decision to end its activities there.
Earlier this month, Israel announced it will suspend the charity’s operations in Gaza after the humanitarian organisation refused to hand over personal details of its staff members to Israeli authorities.
MSF has criticised the move, which takes effect on 1 March, as a “pretext” to obstruct aid.
“For the time being, we are still working in Gaza, and we plan to keep running our operations as long as we can,” Filipe Ribeiro, head of mission for Palestine at MSF, told the AFP news agency.
The Guardian’s community affairs correspondent, Geneva Abdul, spoke to medics in the UK and US who believe they have been denied re-entry to Gaza after speaking out on the conflict. You can read the full report here:
Trump officials plan to build 5,000-person military base in Gaza, files show
The Trump administration is planning to build a 5,000-person military base in Gaza, sprawling more than 350 acres, according to Board of Peace contracting records reviewed by the Guardian.
The site is envisioned as a military operating base for a future International Stabilisation Force (ISF), planned as a multinational military force composed of pledged troops. The ISF is part of the newly created Board of Peace which is meant to govern Gaza. The Board of Peace is chaired by Donald Trump and led in part by his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The plans reviewed by the Guardian call for the phased construction of a military outpost that will eventually have a footprint of 1,400 metres by 1,100 metres, ringed by 26 trailer-mounted armored watch towers, a small arms range, bunkers, and a warehouse for military equipment for operations. The entire base will be encircled with barbed wire.
Read the full report here:
Meanwhile, Russia and Iran have staged navy drills in the Gulf of Oman, as the Kremlin called for restraint amid growing fears of a US military attack against Tehran.
The Kremlin said the joint drills were planned exercises and no cause for alarm, but it comes against the backdrop of heightened US military activity in the Middle East in recent weeks.
“Russia continues to develop relations with Iran and in doing so, we call on our Iranian friends and all parties in the region to exercise restraint and prudence,” said the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov.
“We are currently witnessing an unprecedented escalation of tension in the region, but we still hope that political and diplomatic means and negotiations will continue to prevail in the search for a settlement.”
In other news, there have been reports that the US military is preparing for possible strikes on Iran, potentially as soon as this weekend.
Unnamed sources quoted in New York Times, CBS News and CNN say Trump has yet to make a decision on how to proceed, but the significant build up of US military activity in the Middle East capable of striking nuclear facilities and other targets in Iran has continued this week despite indirect talks between the two countries on Tuesday.
Trump has repeatedly demanded Iran cease its nuclear programme, and has warned he intends to use force if no deal is reached.
Read the full report on this story here:
Jason Burke
Gaza death toll in early part of war far higher than reported, says Lancet study
More than 75,000 people were killed in the first 16 months of the two-year war in Gaza, at least 25,000 more than the death toll announced by local authorities at the time, according to a study published on Wednesday in the Lancet medical journal.
The research also found that reporting by the Gaza health ministry about the proportion of women, children and elderly people among those killed was accurate.
A total of 42,200 women, children and elderly people died between 7 October 2023, when Hamas launched a surprise attack into Israel that prompted a devastating Israeli offensive into Gaza, and 5 January 2025, the study found. These deaths comprised 56% of violent deaths in Gaza.
“The combined evidence suggests that, as of 5 January 2025, 3-4% of the population of the Gaza Strip had been killed violently and there have been a substantial number of non-violent deaths caused indirectly by the conflict,” the authors of the study wrote in the Lancet Global Health.
Read the full report here:
Authoritarians, strongmen and dictators: who is on Trump’s Board of Peace?
A grouping of largely oppressive and authoritarian world leaders and their envoys are flying to Washington for the inaugural meeting of Donald Trump’s newly established Board of Peace.
Global powers, including Washington’s traditional allies, fear the US-led body is an attempt to side-step the more democratic United Nations and replace it with a fee-paying members’ club run on the whims of a single man.
It is not clear how many of the more than 20 members of the Board of Peace, which Trump runs and chairs, will attend the first meeting on Thursday. What is clear is that many of the founding member countries are run as military regimes or dictatorships, while others joined to appease Trump.
The Guardian’s Olive Holmes has more on the list of several confirmed attenders, and where their countries are placed in an annual ranking on political rights and civil liberties, here:
Trump’s Board of Peace to gather for first meeting
Good morning and welcome to the US politics live blog. The inaugural meeting of US president Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, his initiative to bring an end to the war in Gaza, begins today with representatives from more than 45 countries expected to attend.
But some major European allies, including the UK, Germany and France, have turned down their invitations, wary of the group’s operations and its potential to rival the UN. There is also no Palestinian representation on the board, while Israel holds a seat.
The summit comes almost three months since the UN security council approved a US-backed ceasefire plan, which included a two-year mandate for the Board of Peace to oversee the demilitarisation and reconstruction of Gaza. Key issues that remain unresolved include the disarmament of Hamas, the withdrawal of Israeli troops in Gaza, the scale of reconstruction and the flow of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
Trump announced ahead of the meeting that board members have pledged $5bn (£3.7bn) for the reconstruction efforts, a fraction of the $70bn (£52bn) needed to rebuild the Palestinian territory that has been devastated by two years of conflict.
The ceasefire in Gaza remains fragile, with Israel and Hamas accusing each other of violating the agreement. Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israeli troops withdrew to positions behind a so-called yellow line, although they remain in control of more than half the territory.
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