Outpost would house 150 international troops from Morocco and Kosovo
Israel is blocking the first construction project authorized by the Board of Peace, the international organization authorized in 2025 by the UN, chaired by the US president, and formed in the wake of an October 2025 Gaza ceasefire. In early August, the Board issued its first construction contract for Gaza: Louisiana-based Arkel International would build a military outpost for 150 international troops that would serve as the vanguard of an international stabilization force. Two months later, Israel has still not permitted the contract to move forward, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
The delay threatens the broader reconstruction program the Board has spent the year championing. The planned base, which the source described as a “mission support site temporary outpost,” would sit on a site that was once part of the now-defunct Gaza Humanitarian Foundation project. The US-backed GHF operated in Gaza from May 2025 until October 2025 to deliver aid protected by private contractors.
“Israel won’t open the border,” the person familiar with the matter told the Guardian. The Guardian reported that the Israeli Defense Forces and the Israeli government did not respond to requests for comment, and a Board of Peace spokesperson declined to comment.
The source described the base as a rudimentary fortified position of roughly 100 meters by 100 meters. It would host short rotating deployments of a well-armed force of 150 troops drawn from a larger component of 500 already sent from Morocco and Kosovo. The base is the prerequisite for everything else the Board has planned, the source said: “You can’t get in without [an international stabilization force (ISF)]. You can’t rebuild. There’s no security. There’s no deliveries of construction equipment. You can’t even start putting utilities. You can’t start putting in basic life-support facilities you know because without the ISF you can’t go in.”
The Board of Peace has an unusual structure within international organizations. Trump is designated as chair for life. His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, sits on the executive board, as does real estate developer Steve Witkoff, whom Trump has appointed as a mediator in various international disputes. Twenty-eight countries joined as founding members earlier this year, though many Western democracies have kept their distance from the organization. Kushner has unveiled renderings depicting a futuristic Gaza envisioned as a luxury waterfront resort city with high-tech skyscrapers along the Mediterranean.
On September 23, the Board unveiled what it said was a six-month, $2.45 billion plan as the first step toward a project with an estimated ten-year cost of $71 billion. “Today we can point to real progress,” Witkoff said at the unveiling, according to the Guardian. A US senior adviser to the Board, Aryeh Lightstone, announced that a new fund would be started. “Your high net-worth donations will go directly to the Palestinian people,” he said. Lightstone has traveled in Trump circles since the president’s first term and officiated as a rabbi at the 2020 wedding of Trump adviser Stephen Miller to Katie Miller.
The person familiar with the matter said the Board of Peace believes Israel’s government will let the project proceed after Israeli elections scheduled for October 27. Israel has continued strikes in Gaza since the October ceasefire, killing approximately 1,400 people over that period, according to Gaza health authorities. The Gaza conflict is among the eight wars Trump claims to have resolved, and he listed it again last week in a social media post protesting that he had not been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.