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.
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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.