Executive power over Gaza taken from Palestinians, bestowed to Board of Peace in ‘disastrous’ UNSC resolution

The United States’ Board of Peace is to take over the Gaza Strip for at least two years, as per a resolution approved by the United Nations Security Council at its New York headquarters on Tuesday morning.

Passing with 13 votes and two abstentions, the resolution paves the way for an international security force to enter the strip and participate in disarming Hamas under the Board of Peace’s command.

The sweeping mandate, from executive power to responsibility for disarming Hamas, opens the door to clashes between participating countries and Palestinian authorities over the resolution’s implementation via a resolution that a UN source in the region called a “disaster” and “unprecedented” in its bestowal of international legitimacy to bodies without clear oversight or detail.

Hours after the vote, both Hamas and Islamic Jihad said in separate statements that the resolution establishes “an international trusteeship” over Gaza and separates it from the rest of the Palestinian territories — outcomes they said they reject.

Seizing decision-making from Palestinians

UNSC Resolution 2803 authorizes the Board of Peace to undertake transitional administration of the strip, including its “redevelopment.”

The decision empowers the Board of Peace over and above Palestinian self-determination.

Instead, Palestinian decision-making is confined within a “technocratic, apolitical committee of competent Palestinians from the strip” that is ultimately answerable to the board and is responsible only for “tasks of day-to-day civil service and administration” with no executive control.

Though the composition and members of the Board of Peace are yet to be finalized, the resolution endorses the implementation of the US proposal for the board to “be headed and chaired by President Donald J. Trump, with other members and heads of State to be announced, including Former Prime Minister Tony Blair.”

The UN source said the resolution lacks any clear guidelines for the operations of the board, which “is such a vague entity.”

Although Palestinians speaking to the media expressed dismay at the United States’ initial draft and its disregard for Palestinian self-determination, the resolution was rushed through to a final vote in a period of just three weeks with only minor amendments.

Two informed diplomatic sources previously told Mada Masr that the US had told non-permanent security council members that it was not willing to accept major changes to the draft.

The Arab group submitted requests for around 19 amendments, however, including demands to add a reference to Palestinian statehood, one of the diplomats told Mada Masr.

Tuesday’s resolution shows amendments were made to articles on reforming the Palestinian Authority. In the initial draft, which Mada Masr reviewed, only the Board of Peace and Israel were empowered to determine the criteria for “satisfactory” PA reform. The final version, however, says instead that PA reform will be undertaken in reference to an earlier plan put forward by Trump as well as the joint Saudi-French proposal.

There is also a gesture in Resolution 2803 to the possibility of a future Palestinian state, though there are no guarantees for its creation.

After PA reform, the resolution says, “the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.” At such time, it continues, “the United States will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous coexistence.”

Israeli officials have been quick to reject the prospect of Palestinian statehood, however. When reports broke that language regarding Palestinian statehood had been added to the draft, Israeli Finance Minister Belazel Smotrich took to social media to criticize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to block political moves toward Palestinian statehood, saying the prime minister had chosen “silence and political humiliation.”

International security force to assume control over strip, ‘ensure process’ of disarming Hamas 

As for the international stabilization force, the force itself and troop-contributing member states are granted UNSC authorization under Resolution 2803 “to deploy under unified command acceptable to the Board of Peace” in consultation with both Egypt and Israel.

The new international force is to be responsible for the “stabilization” of Gaza “by ensuring the process of demilitarizing the Gaza Strip.”

Hamas has previously stated that it will not disarm unless a Palestinian state is established.

Responding to the UNSC resolution in a statement early on Tuesday, Hamas said the assignment of tasks, including the disarmament of the resistance, to the interim force “strips it of its neutrality” and “transforms it into a party to the conflict in favor of the Occupation.”

Sources informed of talks in parallel to the resolution’s adoption acknowledged to Mada Masr that the articles on disarmament could cause friction.

An Egyptian official said the force’s empowerment to undertake disarmament was a major concern and should be carefully negotiated in further talks between the immediate parties to the ceasefire rather than handed to the international interim force.

They said that the United States and Egypt are in agreement that Hamas should first agree to any disarmament process before the international force takes any steps. This agreement is not referenced in the resolution, however.

The New York diplomat said that “it is agreed without being inked that the force will not intervene in any disarmament plans for Hamas or any other resistance factions in Gaza.”

The vagueness over next steps however, “might cause friction that could inevitably cause members to pull out troops,” the source continued.

The United Nations source agreed. The force is effectively “in charge of disarming Hamas and the other factions,” the source said, “but how would they do it?”

The resolution, the source continued, could see the international forces pitted against Hamas, setting up the conditions for “casualties and a very messy situation.”

Resolution 2308 also sets out vaguely worded withdrawal terms for Israeli forces, who remain stationed up to the yellow line in over 50 percent of the strip.

This withdrawal is conditioned “on standards, milestones and timeframes linked to demilitarization.” The resolution also stipulates that Israel will retain a presence at the strip’s perimeter, which “will remain until Gaza is properly secure from any resurgent terror threat.”

Palestinian determination over security is sidelined to a new force that is to work “along with the newly trained and vetted Palestinian police force.”

An earlier draft plan proposing the board and its powers and leaked to the press earlier this year showed that the Palestinian security force will be under the command of the Board of Peace, too.