Israel joins Trump's 'Board of Peace', says Netanyahu
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a press conference after meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, US, December 29, 2025. PHOTO: REUTERS
Israel has joined US President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace" initiative, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday during his visit to Washington, where he met Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Visuals released earlier on Wednesday after the Netanyahu-Rubio meeting showed them holding a document with Netanyahu's signature on Israel joining the board. Netanyahu said on X that he "signed Israel's accession as a member of the "Board of Peace.""
Met with U.S. Secretary of State @marcorubio at Blair House in Washington.
Ahead of my meeting at the White House with President Trump, I signed Israel’s accession as a member of the “Board of Peace.”
We will continue strengthening the unbreakable alliance between Israel and… pic.twitter.com/CJ4Lw92WdXRead: PM Shehbaz to attend Trump-led Board of Peace meeting in Washington
He later discussed Iran with Trump.
A UN Security Council resolution, adopted in mid-November, authorised the board and countries working with it to establish an international stabilisation force in Gaza, where a fragile ceasefire began in October under a Trump plan on which Israel and Hamas signed off.
Under Trump's Gaza plan, the board was meant to supervise Gaza's temporary governance. Trump thereafter said the board, with him as chair, would be expanded to tackle global conflicts.
The board will hold its first meeting on February 19 in Washington to discuss Gaza's reconstruction.
Many rights experts say that Trump overseeing a board to supervise a foreign territory's affairs resembled a colonial structure. Israel's presence on the board is expected to bring further criticism as the board does not include a Palestinian.
Countries have reacted cautiously to Trump's invitation to join the board launched in late January. Many experts are concerned that the board could undermine the United Nations.
While some of Washington's Middle Eastern allies have joined, many of its traditional Western allies have stayed away.
The ceasefire in Gaza has been repeatedly violated, with at least 580 Palestinian civilians and four Israeli soldiers reported killed since it began in October, according to Palestinian and Israeli tallies, respectively.
Read more: Israeli strikes kill 20 in Gaza as Rafah medical exits halted
The next phase of Trump's Gaza plan calls for resolving complex issues like Hamas' disarmament, which the group has long rejected, further Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the deployment of an international peacekeeping force.
Israel's genocide in Gaza has killed over 72,000, according to Gaza's health ministry. Israel has also deliberately caused a hunger crisis by withholding necessary aid and internally displacing Gaza's entire population multiple times.
Multiple rights experts, scholars and a UN inquiry say it amounts to genocide. Israel calls its actions self-defence after Hamas forces assaulted Israeli-occupied land in October 2023 and took over 250 hostages, and Israel's Hannibal Directive, along with the Hamas assault, killed 1,200 people.