An international body tasked with governing Gaza will be announced by
the end of year, officials say
[December 06, 2025]
By SAMY MAGDY
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — An international body tasked with governing the Gaza
Strip under the next phase of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire is expected to
be announced by the end of the year, an Arab official and a Western
diplomat said Friday.
According to the ceasefire agreement, the authority — known as the Board
of Peace and chaired by U.S. President Donald Trump — is to oversee
Gaza's reconstruction under a two-year, renewable U.N. mandate.
It will include about a dozen other Middle Eastern and Western leaders,
the Arab official and the Western diplomat told The Associated Press,
speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to
speak on the matter.
The path forward for Gaza
Also to be announced is a committee of Palestinian technocrats who will
run the day-to-day administration of post-war Gaza, they two said. The
Western diplomat, who spoke to the AP over the phone from Cairo, said
the announcement about this will likely happen when Trump and Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet later this month.
The ceasefire deal also calls for an armed International Stabilization
Force to keep security and ensure the disarming of the militant Hamas
group, a key demand of Israel.
The announcement would be a significant step forward in implementing
Trump's 20-point plan for the territory devastated by Israel's two-year
campaign against Hamas.
The shaky ceasefire, which came into effect on Oct. 10, has been tested
by outbursts of violence and accusations by both sides of violations of
the truce. The first phase of the ceasefire has neared completion,
though Hamas is still to hand over the remains of a last Israel hostage
called for under the deal.
The Arab official said that talks are still ongoing over which countries
will take part in the international force for Gaza but that he expects
deployment will begin in the first quarter of 2026.
A U.S. official gave a similar timeline, saying that “boots on the
ground” could be a reality in early 2026. The official spoke to the AP
on the same condition of anonymity. Axios first reported the anticipated
announcement on Thursday.
The Arab official said that “extensive talks” will start immediately
with Hamas and Israel on the details of the second phase, which he
expects to be tough.
Those talks are expected the tackle the issue of disarming Hamas, a step
the militant group has not yet agreed to. The plan also calls for
Israeli forces to withdraw from the roughly half of the Gaza Strip that
they still control as the international force deploys.
Funding for a rebuilding plan for the Gaza Strip still has not been
determined. Some Palestinians have expressed concern over the apparent
lack of a Palestinian voice in the body and the lack of a firm promise
in the plan that they will eventually gain statehood.
Netanyahu's government rejects the creation of a Palestinian state, and
the U.S.-brokered deal includes only a vague provision that a pathway
toward statehood may be possible if certain conditions are met.
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Mourners attend the funeral of Palestinians killed in an Israeli
military strike, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip,
Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Israel's plan to open a Gaza border crossing with Egypt
Israel announced on Wednesday that it plans to reopen the Rafah
border crossing between Gaza and Egypt in the coming days, allowing
Palestinians to leave the devastated strip as laid out by the
ceasefire agreement. That could be a major development for
residents, for whom leaving has been extremely difficult — if not
impossible — for most of the war.
However, the governments of Egypt, Jordan, United Arab Emirates,
Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar all expressed
“deep concern” on Friday about the plan.
A dispute also emerged between Egypt and Israel — Cairo wants
Palestinians to be able to return to Gaza through the crossing and
says it would only be opened if movement is allowed both ways.
Israel has said that Palestinians will not be able to return to Gaza
through the crossing until the last hostages’ remains are returned
from Gaza.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of the eight countries
said the Rafah crossing must be open in both directions to allow for
“freedom of movement” for Palestinians. They also expressed concern
that if Palestinians were to leave Gaza, they might not be allowed
to return.
The ministers underscored “their absolute rejection of any attempts
to expel the Palestinian people from their land,” they wrote.
A rising death toll
On Friday, Israel’s military said it killed a man in northern Gaza
who was approaching the troops with another man, both of whom were
“carrying suspicious objects.”
Israeli forces also killed another man in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said a 38-year-old was shot by
Israeli forces in the northern West Bank while the military said the
man threw a rock at soldiers.
The killings mark the latest violence in the Palestinian
territories, which has fueled concern that it could shake Gaza's
fragile truce.
The latest Israel-Hamas war started when Hamas-led militants
attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200
people and taking more than 250 others hostage. Israel’s subsequent
campaign in Gaza has killed more than 70,100 Palestinians, according
to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry, which operates under the
Hamas-run government, is staffed by medical professionals and
maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by the
international community.
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Associated Press writers Josef Federman in Doha, Qatar, and Megan
Janetsky in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
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