UN Security Council adopts Trump’s Gaza plan: Key features, major challenges, and a silver lining

There is also an International Stabilization Force (ISF), which, according to Trump’s plan, “will be the long-term internal security solution… It is critical to prevent munitions from entering Gaza and to facilitate the rapid and secure flow of goods to rebuild and revitalize Gaza.”

Then there is a “technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee”, which will look after the “temporary transitional governance” of Gaza and be responsible for the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities.

About Palestinian statehood, the plan says that after the Palestinian Authority is reformed and the rebuilding of Gaza is well on the way, “the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.”

Money to rebuild Gaza will come from a trust fund backed by the World Bank.

Russia and China abstained from voting on the resolution, not using their vetoes to outrightly block it.

The problems in the plan

First is the fact that both Israel and Hamas have already rejected crucial bits of it. The far-right in Israel is up in arms about the mention of Palestinian statehood, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel remained opposed to a Palestinian state.

Hamas, meanwhile, wrote on Telegram after the resolution was passed that it “imposes an international guardianship mechanism on the Gaza Strip, which our people and their factions reject”. “Assigning the international force with tasks and roles inside the Gaza Strip, including disarming the resistance, strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favour of the occupation,” it added, as reported by the BBC.

Then is the uncertainty on all three authorities — apart from the fact of Trump heading the overseeing board, it is not known who the members of any of the three bodies are. About the Board of Peace, Trump said on Truth Social, “The members of the Board, and many more exciting announcements, will be made in the coming weeks.”

For the ISF, many countries had sought a UN mandate before they agreed to participate. After the UN resolution, it is expected to take concrete shape now. However, most countries will still be loath to see their personnel in active combat with either the Israeli side or Hamas.

The Force will be supervised by the Trump-headed Board. While this Board will report to the UN security council, it is not under the command of the UN.

Nothing much is still known about the membership of the Palestinian “technocratic, apolitical” committee.

The positives

The UN resolution does mark some progress on the Gaza issue.

For one, however vague the language may be, it does contain an international, UN-passed recognition of “Palestinian self-determination”. The mention of Palestinian statehood was the condition for getting Arab and Muslim states, and the Palestinian Authority, to back the plan. Their endorsement, meanwhile, was the reason Russia or China did not veto the plan, though they criticised it.

Vasily Nebenzya, Russian ambassador to the UN, was quoted as saying by Reuters, “In essence, the council is giving its blessing to a US initiative on the basis of Washington’s promises, giving complete control over the Gaza Strip to the Board of Peace and the ISF (international stabilization force), the modalities of which we know nothing about so far.”

However, there is one possible silver lining to the UN sanction to Trump’s Board of Peace — that it gives the US President, who likes his image of ‘warrior of peace’, a stake in rebuilding Gaza. The hope is that this will keep him interested in the Gaza cause long-term. Trump’s involvement matters because is the only man who can, to some degree, prevail on Netanyahu.

Also, the involvement of different countries in the ISF will keep international scrutiny on Gaza, which can help prevent the region from sliding into apocalyptic violence again.