Donald Trump’s Board of Peace is moving forward with a proposal to establish a pilot humanitarian zone in Gaza, designed to provide a secure environment for tens of thousands of civilians and to test elements of the U.S. president’s paused peace plan, a board official told Reuters.
The official did not identify a specific site, but said the board had located secure areas capable of hosting large numbers of Gazans. Within those areas, the plan calls for rapidly scaling up the provision of goods and services to meet the needs of people who choose to relocate there.
The proposal is positioned as a way to kickstart the wider peace plan regardless of whether the plan’s second phase is approved by Hamas. That second phase, as laid out by the Trump administration after the ceasefire, envisions a surge in humanitarian aid, governance of Gaza by a body of Palestinian technocrats, Hamas disarming, and a withdrawal by Israeli forces. To date the plan has stalled and the technocrat body - the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) - has remained outside Gaza.
Gaza continues to endure severe destruction after two years of full-scale war that followed the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023. The enclave’s more than 2 million residents face acute shortages, including hunger, disease and widespread displacement. Israeli military operations have continued, and Israel has said it will expand its area of control in Gaza to 70% of the territory.
The Board of Peace official said the pilot zone would allow the NCAG to exercise administrative authority and for a newly recruited and trained police force to operate as a local law enforcement arm. These local components would be supported by an International Stabilization Force (ISF) composed of multinational peacekeeping troops, the official said.
Participation in the pilot would be voluntary, the official added, and anyone entering the zone would be subject to vetting handled by the NCAG with ISF support. The official said land ownership rights would be accounted for in the vetting process but did not provide details on how the vetting mechanism would work.
The board official said funding would be raised specifically for the pilot project but declined to provide a timeline, saying only that the intention was to move quickly. The official emphasized that the pilot was not contingent on a formal agreement with Hamas, although such an agreement would facilitate faster and broader implementation.
Recent discussions to implement the second phase have not yet produced an accord, according to sources close to the talks. Those sessions included Hamas leaders, mediators from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, and Board of Peace Gaza envoy Nickolay Mladenov.
Three Hamas officials contacted by Reuters gave no immediate comment on the pilot zone proposal. Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Humanitarian operations in Gaza have faced controversy. An aid program run by the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was shut down after the ceasefire amid criticism from the U.N. and others about Palestinian deaths at distribution points. Humanitarian groups insist aid must be allocated according to need and without discrimination.
Separately, on Monday Hamas announced it had dissolved its de facto government in Gaza and indicated readiness to cede authority to the NCAG as it presses Israel to implement other elements of the stalled plan. The Board of Peace said it had taken note of Hamas' move but added that "ultimately, our assessment will be guided by actions, not promises, to meet the critical needs of the people of Gaza". Israel characterized Hamas' announcement as a "stunt".
Context and next steps
The pilot humanitarian zone is portrayed by board planners as both an answer to emergency needs and a demonstration of how NCAG administration, local policing and an international stabilization force might function together in practice. The board has identified secure sites and signaled readiness to raise funding specifically for the project, but many operational and political questions remain unresolved, including the mechanics of vetting, the precise location of zones and how continuing military activity will affect implementation.