On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City Wednesday, Jared Kushner — U.S. former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, an unofficial senior advisor to the administration and close personal associate of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — led the public launch of a $2.45 billion preliminary infrastructure recovery plan for the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. The initiative is led by the so-called Board of Peace, a body chaired by Trump that counts Kushner among its executive board members.
According to reporting from Reuters, the framework outlined Wednesday comprises 66 individual projects targeted at rehabilitating Gaza’s decimated economic infrastructure, though few concrete details about the plan’s implementation or funding commitments were released publicly. Kushner acknowledged during the event that the body has faced repeated setbacks since its formation 11 months ago, framing the delays as a preparatory period ahead of future action. “Different delays on different things, for whatever reason,” he told reporters. “We’re just refining, sharpening the axe, getting ready for when we get to the time to cut the tree… hopefully, that will be very, very soon.”
The launch comes in the wake of a deeply unstable ceasefire brokered by the Trump administration that took effect in October 2025. Despite the truce, local Gaza media documentation confirms Israeli forces have carried out near-weekly air strikes across the enclave that have killed civilian residents with each attack. As of Wednesday, Gaza’s Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that 1,402 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire went into effect, pushing the total confirmed death toll in Gaza since the start of the conflict in October 2023 to just under 74,000.
Board of Peace representative Nickolay Mladenov, the body’s lead official for Gaza, framed the initial $2.45 billion plan as a path toward long-term stability for both communities. “We want to give people a new chance, and we want to make sure that both the Palestinians in Gaza and Israeli communities living across the border have a chance to put behind them this fear of violence that has driven their lives for so many years,” he said at the unveiling. However, the board’s own projections show that full reconstruction of Gaza, a territory roughly half the size of New York City that has endured nearly three years of sustained heavy Israeli bombardment, will require more than $71 billion in total investment over the next decade to rebuild destroyed power grids, water systems and other critical basic infrastructure.
The initiative has already faced sharp condemnation from international aid organizations, who warn the Board of Peace is failing Gazan civilians and enabling ongoing Israeli human rights and humanitarian law violations. Last month, Association of International Development Agencies executive director Athena Rayburn told the UN Security Council that the body is allowing Israel to obstruct critical humanitarian aid access to the blockaded enclave.
Rayburn detailed widespread restrictions that have left Gaza’s population cut off from essential supplies: Israel has categorized basic items including scissors, crutches, wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs as “dual-use” goods barred from entry, blocked specialized medical personnel from entering the territory, and imposed such strict limits on engine oil that the commodity now costs 45 times its standard market price. Even basic foodstuffs including watermelon and onions have been rejected for entry under an unpublished Israeli humanitarian policy, she added.
“What is unclear is why the mandate handed by this council to the Board of Peace is being used to violate the most fundamental rights of the Palestinians in Gaza and the most basic rules of humanitarian law,” Rayburn said. “This cannot be the new status quo.”
In addition to facing humanitarian criticism, the Board of Peace has recently shifted its position on Israeli withdrawal from occupied Gaza, toughening its requirements following a meeting between senior board officials and Netanyahu six weeks ago. The body abandoned its original phased withdrawal framework, instead linking any Israeli pullback beyond the Yellow Line — the demarcation established by the October 2025 ceasefire that divides Gaza into Israeli- and Palestinian-controlled zones — to the full disarmament of Hamas, including the surrender of all light and heavy weapons and the dismantling of underground tunnel networks.
“Contrary to inaccurate reports, we note that the withdrawal of the IDF beyond the Yellow Line will take place only once decommissioning is complete, as Hamas committed to the mediators. This applies to light weapons, heavy weapons and the tunnels alike,” the board said in a statement. Since the ceasefire, Israel has expanded its territorial control in Gaza, now holding more than 60 percent of the enclave, and Netanyahu has publicly stated his goal to expand Israeli control to roughly 70 percent of the territory.