Israeli Foreign Minister to Attend First Board of Peace Meeting
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar will attend the January 19 first Board of Peace meeting; U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to announce plans for a multibillion-dollar reconstruction of Gaza and a UN-authorized stabilization force (Reuters)
Trump and Netanyahu Discuss Gaza in White House Meeting
U.S. President Donald Trump and Netanyahu discussed their approaches toward Iran and Gaza during a White House meeting today (Times of Israel)
Beyond the meeting, Trump expressed his criticisms of Israeli President Isaac Herzog for not issuing a pardon to Netanyahu; the comments come amid Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial (Axios)
Washington’s consideration of military action or a nuclear deal with Tehran prompted Netanyahu to move up his visit, which was initially slated for later this month; he has taken at least six trips to the United States since Trump returned to office last year (NYT)
Indonesia Preps Gaza Troops
Indonesia has preliminary plans to send between five and eight thousand troops to Gaza as part of an international peacekeeping force, its army chief of staff said; Indonesia is the first country to openly pledge troops for the mission (Times of Israel/Reuters)
President Prabowo Subianto has said that as the world’s most-populous Muslim country, Indonesia should help stabilize Gaza and promote an eventual two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (BBC)
The U.S. draft plan demands Hamas surrender all weapons capable of striking Israel as part of the second phase of Trump’s Gaza peace plan, but at least initially allows the group to keep some small arms, the New York Times reported; spokespeople for Netanyahu and Hamas did not immediately comment (NYT)
Meanwhile, health officials reported that Israeli airstrikes and gunfire killed five individuals; while the Israel Defense Forces did not directly comment on the situation, it stated that it carried out attacks on Hamas militants in response to militants opening fire on troops on Monday (Reuters)
Pushback to West Bank Steps
A White House official told reporters that Trump “does not support Israel annexing the West Bank” following the Israeli security cabinet’s decision Sunday to expand Israeli authority in the territory (Times of Israel)
The measures facilitate land purchases by Jewish settlers and assume Israeli control of certain administrative roles previously prescribed to the Palestinian Authority (NYT)
Israeli ministers said the changes would “increase transparency and facilitate land redemption”; the steps are widely deemed to be violations of international law and of Israel’s agreements under the Oslo accords (BBC)
Israel to Expand Control in West Bank
Israel’s security cabinet approved measures that would expand Israeli control over the West Bank, a move criticized by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Reuters)
The measures include canceling the prohibition of the sale of West Bank land to Israeli Jews, transferring construction planning for religious and sensitive sites in Hebron to Israel, approving Israeli enforcement of archaeological and environmental issues in Palestinian-administered areas, and declassifying land registry records; the measures also would revive a committee with the ability to make “proactive” land purchases in the West Bank (AP)
According to a Saudi Foreign Ministry statement, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates strongly condemned the measures (Al Jazeera)
Meanwhile, in Gaza, a senior Hamas official rejected any surrendering of weapons, though Israel insists demilitarizing Gaza is a non-negotiable step for the peace process (Times of Israel)
Israeli Strikes on Gaza Hospital Kills Twenty-One
Israel stated the strikes were in response to a militant attack on Israeli soldiers that seriously wounded one (AP)
An Israeli military official further stated that Israel would continue striking the Strip (NPR)
Palestinians Wait at Rafah Border Crossing
More Palestinians gathered at both the Egyptian and Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing after its reopening on Monday; only approximately twelve returnees were allowed across the border on Monday amid delays and confusion over who was allowed to cross (AP)
Israel Partially Reopens Rafah Border Crossing
The reopening of the crossing—the only route in or out of Gaza for most residents—was an unmet requirement of the first phase of President Donald Trump’s peace plan for the territory (CFR)
Israel had delayed the reopening until it recovered the final hostage body from Gaza, which occurred last week (Reuters)
Until Israel’s takeover in a May 2024 offensive, Rafah was the only Gaza border crossing not controlled by Israel; the crossing was not immediately opened for goods (AP)
Having only partially withdrawn from Gaza in accordance with the peace plan, Israel still controls the area that is home to the crossing (NYT)
Fifty Palestinians are expected to enter Gaza through the crossing today, while around fifty will be allowed to exit, an unnamed Palestinian source told Reuters (Reuters)
The progress came even as strikes that Israel said targeted Hamas militants and weapons sites killed more than thirty people in Gaza over the weekend, exposing ongoing obstacles to Trump’s peace plan (WaPo)
Israel to Open Rafah Border on Sunday
The Israeli government stated the Rafah border crossing will be opened on Sunday; Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories did not state how many Palestinians would be permitted to cross the border per day (Reuters)
Israel Returns Fifteen Palestinian Bodies
Israel returned the bodies of fifteen Palestinians killed in the Gaza war three days after recovering the remains of its last hostage, a step mediators hope will advance the next phase of a U.S.-backed peace plan (Reuters)
Hamas Seeks Police Role in Gaza
Hamas is pushing to fold its roughly ten thousand police officers into a new U.S.-backed Palestinian administration for Gaza, a move Israel is likely to oppose as the group weighs whether to give up its weapons (Reuters)
Final Hostage Body Returned
The body of Ran Gvili, the last remaining Israeli hostage taken to Gaza in Hamas’s 2023 attack, has been returned to Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said (Israeli PMO)
The return of all hostage bodies was a key tenet of the first phase of Trump’s Gaza peace plan and paves the way for the second phase to proceed with Israel’s participation (Times of Israel)
In line with the peace plan, Netanyahu’s office also announced that it will reopen the Rafah crossing into Gaza for pedestrians (Israeli PMO)
Israel Conditions Opening of Rafah Crossing to Recovery of Last Hostage
Israel will open Gaza’s Rafah Crossing with Egypt only after its military completes an operation to locate and recover the remains of the last Israeli hostage; once the operation concludes, Israel plans to allow limited pedestrian passage through the crossing under a full Israeli inspection mechanism (Reuters)
UNRWA Warns West Bank Training Center Faces Imminent Closure
Israeli authorities may close a UNRWA vocational center in the West Bank within days by expropriating its land, threatening education and job training for 350 Palestinian students, the agency says (Reuters)
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)