Olivia Hooper
The New Arab / August 1, 2026
Despite the Gaza deal, over 6 months of Donald Trump’s board of peace have shown his promises will amount to little in the face of Israel’s ongoing crimes.
Despite Hamas’ recent disarmament agreement and compliance with the peace plan, Israel continues to violate the terms, showing no signs of military withdrawal and signalling that illegal Jewish settlements will soon reach Gaza. Donald Trump’s promise of “lasting peace” is lying in tatters, just months after its launch; his peace board and initiative have withered into a delayed, small-scale pilot project near Rafah.
When Donald Trump introduced his Gaza peace plan in October 2025, it was presented as an immediate, definitive end to generations of Israeli occupation and violence. Yet six months after the official creation of his “Board of Peace” (BoP), the reality on the ground looks vastly different.
It seems that what was presented as a grand plan for everlasting peace has dramatically shrunk to no more than a small-scale pilot scheme in the south of the Gaza Strip, which is not expected to be fully operational until the end of 2026.
The pilot scheme consists of a camp for a small fraction of up to 50,000 of Gaza’s two million displaced people, with a 5,000-military-personnel international stabilisation force (ISF) base next to the pilot camp for protection, which has yet to be built, according to plans reviewed by The Guardian.
The ISF, which was promised in the plan to be “deployed immediately,” went off everyone’s radar until news surfaced on 15 July that Morocco became the latest country to sign an agreement, joining several other nations and sending troops to Palestine to help establish a field hospital.
A logistical supply base storage facility at the Kerem Shalom border crossing, between Gaza and Israel, is the only facility nearing completion. It will be used to store vehicles, equipment, and material for the forces.
No rush, it’s just a genocide
“Immediate” is a word that comes up often in the plan framework, yet there seems to be very little action happening to get the plan underway.
“If both sides agree to this proposal, the war will immediately end,” the text reads in the third opening sentence. A bold statement. One that has not been met and shows no signs of becoming a reality.
Israel, as usual, has shown complete disregard for the peace plan, which is worsened by the fact that PM Benjamin Netanyahu serves as a board member representing Israel.
The NGO Armed Conflict Location & Event Data documented over 40 Israeli attacks on Gaza in June, marking the highest monthly record since the so-called ceasefire took effect in October 2025.
The escalation has continued into July, with the UN recording that at least 57 Palestinians, including six children, were killed in Gaza between 13 and 20 July alone. More than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed, nine months after the so-called ceasefire took effect.
The lack of urgency is staggering in contrast to the urgent need for medical and humanitarian aid by the majority of the population. Trump had previously stated that members had pledged $17 billion towards the recovery effort, but other reports say the BoP fund is empty, and that no money has been allocated.
“Full aid will be immediately sent into the Gaza Strip,” the plan promised. It later added this would be done “without interference.” But aid is not entering freely, and what does enter is nowhere near enough.
The UN says less than 20% of truck traffic into Gaza is carrying aid; this is the equivalent of about 110 UN-coordinated aid trucks per day, says Refugees International. But trucks are still being seized, delayed, and restricted upon arrival, which makes it hard to know what actually reaches people.
Israel remains exempt
Another key failure of Trump’s grand plan was the promise that “Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza.”
Yet we are seeing evidence of increased settler violence and occupation in recent months, with no sign of this dying down any time soon, especially with Israel’s elections fast approaching. In early July, reports found Israeli settlers now occupy a fifth of the West Bank.
Israeli politicians such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich indicated that Israel is considering the establishment of new Jewish settlements on what remains of the Gaza Strip, similar to those already in the Occupied West Bank.
Muntasir al-Maliki, a resident of Kufr Malik, northeast of Ramallah, told Amnesty International, “What is happening right now is the erasure of humans, trees and stones, and anything that is Palestinian, by settlers under the support of the military.”
Ideologically motivated Israeli settlers have terrorised entire Palestinian communities through repeated raids on their homes and villages, beatings, death threats, cutting off and damaging vital infrastructure.
A report published in June by Amnesty highlights that settler violence is not an aberration but an integral part of an organised state policy, a policy driven by Netanyahu, who somehow holds a place on Trump’s BoP.
Warlords don’t understand peace
Are we surprised by this lack of action? No, not when we reflect on the glaringly obvious factors that the criteria for board members seemed to be warlords and billionaires. When peace is authored by arms brokers, funded by foreign oligarchs, and overseen by an occupying power, it cannot deliver justice.
Not only this, throughout the plan, Palestinians are treated as test subjects. One of the few sections of the plan that addresses Palestinian people says: “No one will be forced to leave Gaza, and those who wish to leave will be free to do so and free to return. We will encourage people to stay and offer them the opportunity to build a better Gaza.”
What is meant by ‘building a better Gaza’ is not clear, nor is the role that Palestinians will be allowed to play in this alleged recovery effort. Considering that not a single Palestinian is on the founding or executive board, the future involving Palestinians seems bleak.
Now, as regional tensions flare and global attention pivots toward the escalating Israeli-US war on Iran, Gaza is once again being relegated to a footnote.
This geopolitical shift provides a convenient cover for the US to abandon its grand promises.
Until the world recognises that real peace cannot be built on the erasure of Palestine or its people, these grand plans will continue to be nothing more than a shield for continuous violence. Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s plan stands as a monument to deliberate delay and moral failure.
Olivia Hooper is a British journalist based in Morocco
