JERUSALEM: Foreign Minister Gideon Saar will represent Israel at the inaugural meeting of US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” later this week in Washington, his office said on Tuesday (Feb 17).
Hamas, meanwhile, called on the newly-formed board to pressure Israel to halt what it described as ongoing violations of the ceasefire in Gaza.
The Board of Peace, of which Trump is the chairman, was initially designed to oversee the Gaza truce and the territory’s reconstruction after the war between Hamas and Israel.
But its purpose has since morphed into resolving all sorts of international conflicts, triggering fears the US president wants to create a rival to the United Nations.
Saar will first attend a ministerial level UN Security Council meeting in New York on Wednesday, and on Thursday he “will represent Israel at the inaugural session of the board, chaired by Trump in Washington DC, where he will present Israel’s position”, his office said in a statement.
It was initially reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might attend the gathering, but his office said last week that he would not.
Ahead of the meeting, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told AFP that the Palestinian Islamist movement urged the board’s members “to take serious action to compel the Israeli occupation to stop its violations in Gaza”.
“The war of genocide against the Strip is still ongoing – through killing, displacement, siege, and starvation – which have not stopped until this very moment,” he added.