Officials From Twenty Countries Sign Onto Board of Peace
They included several Muslim-majority and Central Asian countries as well as Argentina and Paraguay; Bulgaria and Hungary were the only EU countries to join, and no other permanent member of the UN Security Council beyond the United States has confirmed membership (NBC)
Israel is joining the board but did not attend the ceremony (CNBC)
Trump said he envisioned the board playing a role in conflicts beyond Gaza but that it would work “in conjunction with the United Nations” (Reuters)
At the same ceremony, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner said the next phase of the Gaza truce would focus on providing aid, funding for reconstruction, and demilitarizing Hamas; according to a slide in Kushner’s presentation, Hamas members who cooperate will receive “amnesty and reintegration, or safe passage” (Times of Israel)
Joining the Davos ceremony by video, the newly minted head of Gaza’s technocratic governing committee, Ali Shaath, said the enclave’s Rafah border crossing would reopen in the coming days (Reuters)
Israeli Demolitions at UN Compound
Israel bulldozed structures at a United Nations (UN) compound in East Jerusalem that previously housed the UN agency for Palestinian refugees; UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the demolition as a violation of international law (Reuters)
Israeli forces seized the compound and ordered a halt to the agency’s operations last year, alleging bias and accusing its staff of taking part in the October 7 attacks (AP)
The agency still operates in East Jerusalem, which the UN considers territory under Israeli occupation (CNN)
Leaders Consider Trump’s Proposed Board of Peace
The leaders of countries including Argentina, Kazakhstan, Hungary, Morocco, and Vietnam said they would join Trump’s proposed so-called Board of Peace to oversee the next phase of the Gaza peace plan—and potentially other world conflicts; additional leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, are debating whether to accept the invitation (AP)
Macron was among those invited, but Paris does not plan to join due to the concerns the proposal raises about undermining the United Nations, an unnamed French official told reporters (Reuters)
Trump threatened to impose 200 percent tariffs on French wine and champagne if Macron did not join the board (White House)
Israel Objects to Gaza Executive Board
The Israeli prime minister’s office issued a statement calling the proposed executive board contrary to Israeli policy, without going into detail (DW)
Israel previously rejected a possible role for Turkey in postwar Gaza (Guardian)
White House Announces Executive Board for Gaza
The proposed Gaza Executive Board would coordinate with the enclave’s new technocratic governing committee; it includes Turkey’s foreign minister, senior Qatari and Emirati officials, and an Israeli businessman, but no Israeli officials (NYT)
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff are also members (White House)
Gaza Peace Plan Enters Second Phase
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff announced on social media that Trump’s Gaza peace plan has moved into a second phase of “demilitarization, technocratic governance, and reconstruction” (X)
Mediators Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey said that former Palestinian Authority official Abdel Hamid Shaath would head a fifteen-person technocratic committee charged with managing Gaza day-to-day; the composition of the rest of the committee was not yet announced, though a U.S. official who briefed reporters said that the full list would be released this week (Reuters)
The official added that invitations were sent out to world leaders for membership in a Board of Peace meant to supervise the technocratic government (Times of Israel)
It will be headed by Trump, with Bulgarian diplomat and former UN official Nickolay Mladenov as its director-general (AP)
Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told the Washington Post that Hamas will support the transfer of “all governmental and official functions” to the new technocratic committee, including security (WaPo)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office called the establishment of a technocratic committee a “declaratory move” in a statement and said that Israel’s focus remained on the return of the final deceased hostage body still in Gaza, an unfinished tenet of the peace plan’s first phase (Israeli PMO)
The move to phase two of the peace plan comes despite strikes continuing during the truce that defined phase one; while Witkoff said phase two would include “the disarmament of all unauthorized personnel,” Israel has repeatedly voiced skepticism about Hamas’s willingness to disarm (Telegraph)
Washington will work to bridge the gaps between Israel and Hamas on demilitarization, a U.S. official told reporters (Times of Israel)
Trump’s peace plan also envisions the deployment of an international security force in Gaza, though few countries have voiced willingness to be a part of it (CFR)
NYT: Israel Has Demolished 2,500 Buildings in Gaza Since Ceasefire
According to satellite data analyzed by the New York Times, most of the demolitions occurred in Israeli-controlled parts of the territory, though dozens are in parts of the enclave where Israel had pledged to withdraw and halt military operations; Israel said the demolitions are necessary to demilitarize Gaza (NYT)
Israel-Somaliland Ties
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar visited Somaliland after Israel became the first country in the world to officially recognize the breakaway territory’s independence last month; Saar said that Israel would soon open an embassy in Somaliland (AP)
Abdirahman Dahir Adan, Somaliland’s foreign minister, denied reports that Somaliland had been approached by Israel about receiving Palestinians from Gaza (Al Jazeera)
Azerbaijan Vetoes Troops for Gaza
Azerbaijan will not send troops to Gaza as part of an international peacekeeping force after questioning the United States about the nature of the operation, President Ilham Aliyev told local media (Reuters)
An international peacekeeping force is part of Trump’s plan to maintain a ceasefire in Gaza, but few details have been confirmed since the UN Security Council endorsed the peace plan in November (CFR)
Winter Storm Deaths in Gaza Reach at Least Seventeen
Storm Byron caused at least thirteen homes to collapse and flooded or swept away twenty-seven thousand tents, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office (CNN)
Israeli Cabinet Approves Nineteen West Bank Settlements
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the move brings the total number of new settlements over the past three years to sixty-nine; the latest approvals include two settlements that were previously evacuated during a 2005 disengagement plan (AP)
Separately, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Turkey expects the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal to begin early in 2026 (Reuters)
Mediators Meet in Miami to Advance Phase Two of Ceasefire
U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff met with officials from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey in Miami to discuss the Gaza peace plan (Times of Israel)
Israeli Strike in Gaza City Kills Five, IDF Investigating
The Israel Defense Forces said it was investigating a strike on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City; the IDF said troops spotted several suspects in structures on the western side of the Yellow Line and fired at them following their identification, but did not specify if they were armed or how they posed a threat (Times of Israel)
Gaza’s civil defense agency said most of the victims were children (Reuters)
Sanctions on ICC Judges
The U.S. State Department announced sanctions on two International Criminal Court (ICC) judges for targeting Israel without Israel’s consent (State)
Israel argues the ICC cannot target it in part because it is not a party to the court’s statute; the Palestinian territories are a member (ICC)
The ICC called the sanctions “a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution” (ICC)
Washington had sanctioned six other ICC judges involved in cases against Israel earlier this year (Times of Israel)
Strike on Hamas Leader
Israel’s military said that it killed Hamas leader Ra’ad Sa’ad in a Gaza airstrike; the military said Sa’ad was “heavily involved” in planning Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack and blamed him for violations of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire (IDF)
Hamas confirmed Sa’ad’s death and said that the Israeli airstrike that killed him was a ceasefire violation (WaPo)
Flooding in Gaza
Israel is blocking emergency supplies to reinforce flooded tents from entering Gaza, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM); Israel maintains it is meeting its obligations to allow aid into the enclave (Reuters)
At least twelve people are dead or missing, and tens of thousands of tents were flooded following heavy rains yesterday, Gaza’s Hamas-run government media office said (NBC)
New West Bank Settlements
Israel approved 764 housing units across three West Bank settlements, drawing condemnation from the Palestinian Authority, which urged Washington to pressure Israel to halt expansion, as the current government accelerates construction of settlements (New Arab)
Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Trump administration officials are debating whether to apply terrorism-related sanctions on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency over alleged ties to Hamas (Reuters)
Several State Department staff officials warned that a designation could trigger major legal and humanitarian fallout, while UNRWA rejected the accusations as baseless and “unprecedented” (Reuters)
Hamas Places Conditions for Second Ceasefire Phase
Hamas said it will not enter the next stage of the U.S.-brokered truce unless Israel halts strikes, opens Rafah to two-way traffic, and increases aid flows, arguing Israel has not met first-phase commitments; Israel says Hamas is delaying by withholding a final hostage’s remains and insists its limited strikes target militants near the Yellow Line, which separates Israeli-controlled territory from other areas of Gaza (AP)
Israel today reopened the Allenby Crossing between Jordan and the West Bank, restarting the flow of aid and goods under stricter security conditions, following the killing of Israeli soldiers near the crossing in September (Reuters)
Israeli Police Raid UN Office in East Jerusalem
Israel said it collected 11 million shekels in unpaid municipal taxes during a raid on the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency; UN officials condemned the move as a violation of the inviolability of UN premises (Reuters)
Separately, Israeli drone strikes killed two Palestinians accused of crossing into Israeli-controlled territory in Gaza (Times of Israel)
Hamas Expresses Openness to Disarmament
A senior Hamas official said the group is open to “freezing or storing or laying down” its arms as part of the next phase of the ceasefire; Naim, who is based in Qatar, suggested a long-term truce of five to ten years for such talks to take place and said that Hamas would oppose an international force carrying out the disarmament (AP)
That could pave the way forward for one of the most sensitive and controversial elements of the U.S.-backed peace plan (CNN)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the first phase of the truce was “almost” complete, noting that Hamas still needs to return the body of one Israeli hostage; Netanyahu said he would discuss the next phase of the truce with Washington this month (Israeli MoFA)
Separately, Israel’s military chief called the withdrawal line in Gaza—behind which Israeli troops moved as part of the first phase—“a new border,” a move that would effectively split Gaza in half if formalized; the second phase of the peace plan stipulates Israel’s further withdrawal from that line (FT)
Hamas official Bassem Naim’s comments to the Associated Press came as Axios reported that envoys from the United States, Israel, and Qatar—home to Hamas’s political bureau—held talks in New York (Axios)
Meanwhile, in Gaza, health authorities announced that Israel had killed at least seven Palestinians, though the Israeli military suggested it fired at militants who approached Israeli forces, killing three (Reuters)
Clashes in Gaza and West Bank
Israeli forces fired at Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, suggesting that individuals had again attempted to cross into Israeli-controlled territory; the military also killed a man in Nablus, as part of expanded Israeli raids across the West Bank (Al Jazeera)
Separately, officials from mediating countries said that the Board of Peace, a transitional authority proposed as part of the U.S. vision for Gaza, would likely be announced by the end of this month, in conjunction with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the United States; one of the officials added that the International Stabilization Force, which the U.S. proposal envisions as providing security in Gaza, would be announced at a later date (AP)
Anti-Hamas Gazan Leader Dies
Yasser Abu Shabab, the Bedouin head of the Popular Forces group, was killed while attempting to resolve a family dispute, his militia said, though the precise circumstances of his death remain unclear; the death is a setback to Israel’s effort to empower local rivals as an alternative to Hamas rule (Reuters)
Hamas, which has worked to crack down on rival groups since the Gaza truce, referred to Abu Shabab as a traitor but did not claim involvement in his killing (BBC)
Separately, Israel confirmed that the body delivered by Hamas earlier this week belonged to Thai hostage Sudthisak Rinthalak, leaving a single hostage body that is yet to be returned (BBC)
On the battlefield, Israeli forces fired at an alleged terrorist who tried crossing into Israeli-controlled territory, marking another instance of clashes despite the truce (Times of Israel)
Fighting in Gaza
Israel carried out a targeted strike in southern Gaza after militants wounded five Israeli soldiers in an attack that violated the truce (AP)
The Israeli strike killed five civilians, according to local health authorities (BBC)
Gaza Hostage Transfer
Hamas said it would hand over the body of an Israeli hostage today after Israel noted the remains Hamas turned in yesterday were misidentified (Reuters)
Israeli officials later said the remains did not belong to either of the two remaining hostage bodies in Gaza, despite assertions from Hamas; the exchange unfolded against a backdrop of continued Israeli strikes in the enclave, with Gazan health authorities reporting the death of a freelance journalist (Reuters; Times of Israel)
An outstanding condition of the current Gaza truce is the transfer of the bodies of two deceased hostages (BBC)
Separately, Israel said today it would allow the Rafah crossing to Egypt to reopen in the coming days for people who need to exit the territory for medical care (WaPo)
Trump Invites Netanyahu to Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump extended the invitation in a phone call, paving the way for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fifth visit during Trump’s second term; the leaders also discussed Gaza’s post-war security arrangements and Israel’s relations with Syria (Reuters)
Earlier, Trump warned Israel that its actions could undermine Syrian reconstruction, asking Netanyahu to slow military operations in the country (Al Jazeera)
In Gaza, meanwhile, Israel said its forces killed forty Hamas militants who were stuck in a Rafah tunnel, despite efforts by mediators to negotiate safe passage for them (New Arab)