US-led Gaza post-war planning advances with secretive Cyprus meetings
Representatives linked to a US-led Board of Peace are meeting in Ayia Napa, Cyprus, to draw up plans for Gaza's next administrative phase. The discussions are taking place alongside separate talks in Cairo involving a Hamas delegation, underscoring the parallel diplomatic tracks now shaping the enclave's future. The meetings are focused on a roadmap for post-war governance and a pilot reconstruction project in an area described as free of Hamas control near Rafah.
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The Board of Peace is said to include prominent international figures such as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov. According to the supplied material, the group is working around Article 17 of Donald Trump's Gaza proposal, which sets out what officials describe as a temporary reconstruction phase in areas not under Hamas control. The plan is intended to isolate Hamas from Gaza's population and resources, while creating humanitarian shelter compounds and temporary structures for civilians.
The reported pilot project could begin within weeks in the Tal as-Sultan area near Rafah. The plan envisages medical services and shelter for unarmed civilians, with a multinational stabilisation force stationed at Camp Amitai on the border. Those forces would be equipped only with batons to maintain public order, while the Israeli military would remain behind the Yellow Line separating areas under its control from those outside it.
The initiative matters because it goes beyond emergency relief and moves into the question of who will govern and rebuild Gaza after the war. By linking reconstruction, aid distribution and civilian shelter to areas outside Hamas control, the plan could influence where displaced Palestinians live and how authority is exercised on the ground. It also raises wider legal and political questions, including accusations of colonial occupation and concerns about whether the arrangement can be sustained.
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The supplied material says the Board of Peace was set up by Trump after the October Gaza ceasefire, and that the current effort is already facing financial crises, Israeli political gridlock and legal controversies. It also says the war has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, a figure that frames the scale of the humanitarian emergency surrounding the planning talks. The combination of post-war administration, reconstruction and security arrangements suggests that the next phase of the conflict is being shaped before any final settlement has been reached.
What remains unclear is how much practical authority the Board of Peace would have, who would fund the pilot project, and whether the proposed humanitarian zones can operate without becoming politically contested. It is also not clear how the talks in Cyprus relate to the negotiations in Cairo, or whether the plan can proceed if the legal and financial obstacles deepen. The next developments to watch are any formal announcement on the Rafah pilot, further details on the multinational force, and whether the separate diplomatic tracks converge into a single framework.
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