By Independent News Roundup
President Trump used the World Economic Forum stage in Davos on Thursday to formally unveil and ratify his new “Board of Peace,” officially establishing the body as an international organization tasked with overseeing the next phase of his Gaza strategy and laying the groundwork for a broader global peace framework.
Standing before delegates from more than 20 countries, Trump said the long-running Israel–Hamas war was nearing its conclusion. “They’re down to little fires,” he said of the fighting after more than two years of conflict. “We can put them out very easily.”
Trump became the first signatory to the charter creating the Board of Peace, joined by senior officials from across the Middle East, Europe, Central Asia, and Latin America — including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, Hungary, the UAE, and Argentina — in a ceremony designed to mark the board’s formal entry onto the world stage.
Trump cast the signing as a defining milestone of his second-term foreign policy. “We have peace in the Middle East — no one thought that was possible,” he told the audience. “Today the world is a safer, richer and much more peaceful place than it was one year ago.” He said the board would work alongside existing international institutions while offering what he described as a results-driven alternative to a United Nations that has strayed from its founding mission of conflict resolution and global security. “Once this board is completely formed, we can do pretty much whatever we want to do,” Trump said. “Together we are in a position to end decades of suffering, stop generations of hatred and bloodshed and forge a lasting and beautiful peace for that region.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized that the board’s initial mandate would remain narrowly focused. “First and foremost,” Rubio said, the board’s responsibility is to ensure that the Gaza peace deal “becomes enduring” before expanding its role to other conflicts.
The Board of Peace was conceived last fall as part of Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan, advanced by special envoy Steve Witkoff and senior adviser Jared Kushner. The framework calls for Hamas to be fully disarmed, a transitional Palestinian government to replace Hamas in Gaza, and an international peacekeeping force to supervise security and governance. In November, the United Nations ratified a resolution endorsing the board’s role in supervising that transition.
Trump made clear Thursday that disarmament remains the central condition for any lasting settlement. “They were born with rifles in their hands,” he said of Hamas fighters. “But they have to give up their weapons. If they don’t do that, it’s totally the end of them.” The administration is now moving forward with what it calls Phase Two of the plan, despite Hamas failing to return the remains of Israeli counter-terror officer Ran “Rani” Gvili, believed to be the last unrecovered victim of the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks. “We are committed that Hamas must return that last remaining deceased hostage,” Trump said. “We’re committed to ensuring Gaza is demilitarized, properly governed and beautifully rebuilt.”
Reconstruction, Trump said, is a central pillar of the peace strategy. Kushner presented development concepts for a postwar Gaza that would replace large sections of the territory with new housing and coastal tourism projects, including 100,000 housing units in Rafah and the construction of a “New Gaza” City. “In the Middle East, they build cities like this — two, three million people — in three years,” Kushner said. “This is very doable if we make it happen.”
Trump closed by returning to the language of rebuilding and permanence. “This is a great location,” he said. “I’m a real estate person at heart, and it’s all about location.” In Davos, the president presented the Board of Peace not as a symbolic gesture, but as a formal international institution meant to lock in the Gaza settlement, anchor regional stability, and define his administration’s approach to global peace.
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