One of the ceasefire agreement’s concrete achievements deserves acknowledgment: it facilitated the release of the last hostages held by Hamas. Families who had spent months in anguish received their loved ones back. For those individuals and their families, the ceasefire was a success of profound personal importance. As Trump’s Board of Peace held its first meeting Thursday, that achievement was the foundation on which the board is trying to build.
But the hard part — achieving a lasting resolution to a two-year war ignited by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack — remains entirely ahead. Hamas has not disarmed. The transitional governing committee cannot enter Gaza. International stabilization forces have not deployed. Daily Israeli strikes continue. The political and governance transition that would make peace durable has not begun.
The board’s membership of more than two dozen founding nations includes Israel and regional players who were involved in the ceasefire negotiations. Trump claims $5 billion in reconstruction pledges and thousands of peacekeeping personnel — commitments that have not been publicly documented. The UN estimates reconstruction will cost $70 billion. The gap is vast.
Arab and Muslim board members are pressing for Israeli restraint on the daily strikes, arguing that continued military operations undermine the ceasefire atmosphere. Israel insists the strikes target militants threatening its forces. The US has not publicly pressured Israel to halt them. This disagreement runs through the board and threatens its cohesion.
The hostage release was real and important. It demonstrated that the ceasefire framework can produce results when the parties are sufficiently motivated. The question now is whether that motivation can be sustained and broadened to address the far more complex challenges of disarmament, governance, stabilization, and reconstruction.
