Trump says nations to pledge $5B for Gaza as strikes shatter fragile ceasefire
President Donald Trump said member states of what he called the Board of Peace will announce more than $5 billion in pledges for reconstruction and humanitarian relief in Gaza at a meeting Thursday, alongside commitments of personnel for a United Nations–authorized stabilization force and local policing in the enclave.
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In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the gathering — described as the group’s first official meeting — will be held at the “Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace,” which he said the State Department recently renamed after him. He said delegations from more than 20 countries, including heads of state, are expected to attend. The White House and State Department did not immediately provide additional details. The United Nations has not publicly announced a new stabilization mandate for Gaza.
The pledge drive comes as violence flared again in Gaza despite a U.S.-brokered truce that entered its second phase last month. At least 12 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the territory’s north and south, Palestinian civil defense and health officials said, in what Israel’s military called a response to Hamas ceasefire violations.
Medics said an Israeli strike on a tent encampment for displaced families killed at least four people, while health officials said another strike killed five in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. The reports could not be independently verified.
An Israeli military official said the Israel Defense Forces began striking after what it called a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire around Beit Hanoun, alleging armed militants emerged from a tunnel “east of the yellow line,” a boundary the sides agreed would delineate areas of control under the October ceasefire terms. The official said the strikes were precise and conducted in line with international law, and accused Hamas of more than six violations, including operating east of the line.
The military said it continued demolishing tunnels in northern Gaza and that Air Force aircraft struck a building where several gunmen entered after emerging from an underground passage, killing at least two and likely more. Hamas did not immediately comment on the Israeli account.
Gaza’s health ministry said at least 600 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the Gaza deal began. Israel said four of its soldiers were killed by militants over the same period. Both sides have repeatedly accused the other of violating the agreement, a central pillar of Washington’s plan to halt the war.
Tensions also surged on Israel’s northern frontier. Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli strike near the Syrian border killed four people after a drone targeted a car in the country’s east. The Israeli military said it struck operatives from Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Majdal Anjar area. It appeared to be the first strike Israel has publicly claimed in Lebanon against Islamic Jihad since a November 2024 truce sought to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
Fighters from Islamic Jihad were among those killed in Lebanon during the cross-border hostilities that erupted in October 2023 over the Gaza war. While Israel says it primarily targets the Iran-backed Hezbollah, it has also periodically targeted allied Palestinian factions. An AFP tally of health ministry reports says more than 370 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon since the ceasefire.
In January, and in line with the 2024 truce, the Lebanese army said it completed the first phase of a government plan to disarm Hezbollah along parts of the border. As part of a wider push to curb non-state weapons, some Palestinian factions in Lebanon surrendered arms in several refugee camps last year to Lebanese authorities. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have not announced plans to disarm in Lebanon.
Trump’s promised fundraising and security commitments — if realized — would arrive amid a tenuous lull frayed by recurring strikes and counteraccusations, underscoring the gulf between diplomacy on paper and the grinding reality on the ground in Gaza and across the Israel-Lebanon frontier.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
