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Analysis

Trump's Board of Peace faces first test: Disarming Hamas

President Donald Trump’s plan for a Gaza Strip lined with beachfront resorts and glitzy high-rises hinges on Hamas' disarmament.

Palestinian Hamas militants secure the area as Egyptian workers, accompanied by members of the International Committee of the Red Cross, search for the last two remaining bodies of hostages from under the rubble of the Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern of Gaza Strip on Dec. 1, 2025.
Palestinian Hamas militants secure the area as Egyptian workers, accompanied by members of the International Committee of the Red Cross, search for the last two remaining bodies of hostages from under the rubble of the Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern of Gaza Strip on Dec. 1, 2025. — Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP via Getty Images

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump launched his Board of Peace on Thursday along with an ambitious proposal to demilitarize and rebuild the Gaza Strip — a plan doomed from the start if Hamas refuses to surrender its arms.

Speaking at the signing ceremony in the Swiss city of Davos, Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner said the United States aims to apply “free market economy principles” in war-torn Gaza, where a majority of the population was living below the poverty line even before Israel’s two-year bombing campaign leveled the Strip. 

“We were toying with the idea of saying, ‘Let's build a free zone and then we have a Hamas zone,’ but then we said, ‘Let's just plan for catastrophic success,’” Kushner said. 

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