President Donald Trump’s newly formed Board of Peace is scheduled to convene its first meeting on February 19 with a focus likely on the next phase of the truce reconstruction of the war-ravaged territory.
The meeting takes place as efforts to sustain a fragile ceasefire in Gaza face a raft of mounting challenges.
The initiative, unveiled by Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, has received authorization from the U.N. Security Council to oversee implementation of the Gaza ceasefire and to contribute to postwar governance and rebuilding. The Council passed a resolution to authorize the board to oversee the implementation of Gaza peace and reconstruction process.
According to Axios, the inaugural meeting will be held at the U.S. Institute of Peace.
The board includes a wide range of countries, among them the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Bahrain, Pakistan, Turkey, Hungary, Morocco, Kosovo, Albania, Bulgaria, Argentina, Paraguay, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Pakistan Sunday confirmed it has received an invitation to attend the opening meeting and it will attend the event.
President Trump has designated the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace in Washington as the board’s headquarters.
Permanent membership would require a $1 billion financial contribution within the first year.
According to Time magazine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he is willing to contribute $1 billion, but only if Russian assets frozen in the United States during the Biden administration are released.
Trump will chair the board, while an executive committee will include his son-in-law Jared Kushner, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, World Bank Group President Ajay Banga, National Security Adviser Robert Gabriel, and Marc Rowan, CEO of Apollo Global Management.
The board’s launch comes as the Gaza ceasefire appears increasingly unstable. On February 4, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 24 Palestinians, most of them women and children,
Israel said the strikes were in response to a militant attack that seriously wounded one of its soldiers. Gaza’s health ministry reports that more than 550 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire, brokered by Trump and mediated by Turkey, Qatar and Egypt, took effect on October 10, 2025.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israeli forces will not fully withdraw from Gaza unless Hamas disarms.
Netanyahu is expected to meet Trump at the White House on February 18, one day before the board’s first meeting, although Israeli officials say the talks will focus on Iran, a Time magazine report said,
If Netanyahu attends the Board of Peace meeting, it will mark his first engagement with Arab leaders since before the October 7 attacks and the subsequent Gaza war.
Muhammad Luqman is Associate Editor at Views News Now. He writes on wide-ranging issues including economy, South Asia, the Middle East, agriculture, economy and innovation. Luqman has worked some of the leading news organizations and won acclaim for his original and research-based works.
