It has been one year since United States President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace (BoP) brokered a “ceasefire” aimed at eventually ending Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.
However, rather than receiving relief and a chance to rebuild, Palestinians in the enclave continue to face attacks and be uprooted as Israeli forces have expanded control within the territory.
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Trump first proposed the BoP in September 2025, saying it would stabilise Gaza and ensure lasting peace.
In November, a United Nations Security Council resolution recognised the board as a “transitional administration” in Gaza.
But what has the board achieved? Here’s what we know:
What were the BoP’s goals?
The BoP’s mission was laid out in Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan, as was the “ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas. The ceasefire began on October 10, 2025.
The plan envisioned steps for each side to take that could eventually create a “credible pathway” to Palestinian statehood.
It required Israeli forces to withdraw to about 50 percent of the Gaza Strip and cease aerial and artillery bombardments. It also required Israel to release 250 Palestinian prisoners and another 1,700 people jailed from Gaza since October 7, 2023, the day that Hamas led attacks into southern Israel and Israel began the war. The plan proposed reopening border crossings to allow much-needed aid into Gaza.
The peace plan required Hamas to release all Israeli captives. It also proposed a later phase in which the group would disarm and its members would be granted amnesty or a safe exit from Gaza.
The peace plan established the BoP as a transitional governing body until the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the occupied West Bank, could take over.
An International Stabilization Force (ISF), led by the US, was supposed to take over security in Gaza from withdrawing Israeli forces, the plan stated. It also proposed the reconstruction and redevelopment of Gaza, whose people, it said, “have suffered enough”.
What has the BoP done in the past year?
In February, the BoP’s members, who each joined in exchange for a $1bn annual fee, met in Washington, DC, for its first summit, at which member states pledged $7bn in funding although aid agencies said reconstructing Gaza would cost closer to $70bn.
On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York last month, the BoP also unveiled a 66-project recovery plan worth $2.4bn.
What has BoP achieved?
The BoP’s achievements are tied to the success of the Gaza peace plan.
Under that, Hamas has released all 168 living captives and Israel has freed Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas has also announced the dissolution of its government in the Gaza Strip although Israel has dismissed that as a “stunt”.
Other goals under the peace plan have been only partially met.
Governance has been hampered. While a National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), meant to act as the governing authority in Gaza, was founded, Israel has not granted it entry into the Strip. The NCAG reports directly to the board and is led by Chief Commissioner Ali Shaath and other Palestinian technocrats. It operates from Cairo. Israel has not stated why the committee is not permitted to enter Gaza.
Aid remains restricted. About 227 aid trucks enter the Strip daily when 600 trucks were supposed to, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) hunger monitor.
Israel has classified thousands of basic items, such as tents and essential equipment like ventilators, as “dual use” items, which means they have military and civilian applications, and has restricted their flow into the Strip. About 1.4 million Palestinians – or most of Gaza’s more than 2 million people – will suffer hunger until at least December, the IPC has noted. That is 200,000 more than those who faced hunger in May, suggesting a significantly deteriorating situation.
What has not been achieved?
Observers argued that the BoP has entirely failed to secure the “ceasefire” as Israeli attacks have continued almost daily on the Strip.
Since October 10, 2025, more than 1,400 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed. In the three years since the war began, more than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed, and thousands more are missing and presumed dead under the rubble.
Israel says its continuing attacks target Hamas members, but the group vehemently denies the claims.
Israel also now occupies about 60 percent of the Strip, more than the 50 percent agreed in Trump’s peace plan. The “Yellow Line”, which demarcates the area of Gaza under Israeli occupation, has been pushed farther into the Strip, causing further displacement and squeezing Gaza’s population into an ever-shrinking area. Palestinians unknowingly crossing the “Yellow Line” have been shot dead.
In December, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the army “will never fully leave” the Strip.
Mohamad Elmasry at the Doha Institute of Graduate Studies told Al Jazeera that Israel is simply continuing a broader policy of “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. “They are making life miserable,” he said, adding: “This is all by design.”
Consequently, the BoP has also failed to ensure Hamas disarms so phase two of the peace plan could begin.
Although Hamas has agreed to hand its weapons over to the NCAG, it rejects the “disarmament” clause because Israel has not ceased its attacks or withdrawn from the Strip as agreed. At the same time, Israel has said it will not move forward with the plan if Hamas does not disarm, leaving the two sides in a standoff.
Meanwhile, no stabilisation force has been deployed. Six countries – Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Albania, Kosovo and Uganda – have so far committed personnel to form a security force of 20,000 soldiers and 12,000 police headed by the US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM).
There has been no meaningful reconstruction in Gaza. Palestinians continue to live in tent camps infested with rodents and insects with little to shield them from intense heat, or rain.
Will BoP take over from UNRWA?
The Trump administration and BoP have echoed Israel’s rejection of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, which has long provided lifesaving humanitarian aid, education, development programmes and social services in Gaza and employs about 11,000 Palestinians.
The BoP said last month that it will not work with UNRWA, essentially sidelining the agency.
A BoP official told The Associated Press news agency that UNRWA could continue working in Gaza if its programmes were deemed relevant but the agency’s “days are over”.
UNRWA said the move was “not logical”.
In June, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to extend UNRWA’s mandate until 2029. The BoP itself is mandated to oversee the peace process until December 2027 when its progress will be reviewed for possible renewal by the UN.
Analysts and rights groups have raised concerns that the BoP could take over all aspects of Gaza’s rebuilding. Countries too, including France and other European nations, have called out any attempts to replace the UN in the Strip.
But Elmasry said no country is willing to take action. “There are a lot of international actors that do not want to cross the US,” he said. That essentially leaves the fate of more than 2 million Palestinians to Trump, he added.
Ultimately, the BoP has “failed”, said Simon Mabon, a professor at Lancaster University.
“The failure to implement its own plan to end the Gaza conflict demonstrates its impotence and the inability to ensure that Israel and, to a lesser extent, Hamas, remain bound by their own commitments [and] has allowed the genocide to continue,” he concluded.
