GAZA CITY: Hamas said any discussions on Gaza must begin with a total halt to Israeli "aggression" as Donald Trump's "Board of Peace" maps out the territory's future, with Israel insisting on the militants' disarmament before reconstruction starts.
Trump's board met for its inaugural session in Washington on Thursday, with a number of countries pledging money and personnel for rebuilding, more than four months into a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
But the board meeting offered no timeline for Hamas to lay down its weapons or for Israel's army to withdraw from the shattered enclave.
"Any political process or any arrangement under discussion concerning the Gaza Strip and the future of our Palestinian people must start with the total halt of aggression," Hamas said in a statement late Thursday.
The Palestinian group also said arrangements for Gaza's future must start with the "lifting of the blockade and the guarantee of our people's legitimate national rights, first and foremost their right to freedom and self-determination."
During the Board of Peace meeting, it was announced that a handful of countries—Albania, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, and Morocco—would commit troops to a nascent International Stabilization Force (ISF) for Gaza.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told AFP that the Palestinian Islamist movement was open to international forces in the territory, but with caveats.
"We want peacekeeping forces that monitor the ceasefire, ensure its implementation, and act as a buffer between the occupation army and our people in the Gaza Strip, without interfering in Gaza's internal affairs," Qassem said.
The ISF aims to have 20,000 soldiers, as well as a new police force. Muslim-majority Indonesia has said it is ready to send up to 8,000 troops.
'Security and peace'
The Board of Peace was established after the Trump administration, with longtime mediators Qatar and Egypt, negotiated a ceasefire in October to halt two years of devastating war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The next phase of the Trump plan provides for the disarmament of Hamas, the gradual withdrawal of the Israeli military, and the deployment of the ISF, with a transitional Palestinian technocratic committee overseeing day-to-day governance.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that Hamas must disarm before any reconstruction begins.
But Hamas refuses to lay down its arms under the conditions set by Israel.
Both sides have frequently accused each other of violating the terms of the ceasefire, which came into effect last October after two years of devastating war.
At the Board of Peace meeting on Thursday, Trump said several countries, mostly in the Gulf, had pledged more than seven billion dollars to rebuild the territory.
Palestinians who spoke to AFP in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis swayed between hope and suspicion about the Washington meeting.
"Trump is merely a military force imposing his views on the world, and this security council, which he boasts about, is another gateway to the occupation of Palestine, another face of the Zionist occupation," said Farid Abu Odeh, referring to the board.
Another Palestinian, Mohammed al-Saqqa, said he was praying Trump's board would lead to "security and peace, and to something better than what we have gone through."
'Colonial project'
But many experts and some US allies have indicated skepticism at the board due to concerns it may sideline the United Nations.
Hugh Lovatt, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told AFP he found what was emerging from the board "seriously disturbing."
Lovatt said many of its ideas for Gaza's reconstruction originated from Israeli-friendly partners, while Palestinian voices were excluded.
He said signs pointed to "a colonial project in terms of trying to impose a foreign economic project on a territory."
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the European Commission should not have sent a representative to the meeting, as it did not have a mandate to represent member states.
Former US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro said the lack of Palestinian input and the grand reconstruction plans contingent on Hamas's disarmament made it "hard to take the Board of Peace seriously."
