JERUSALEM / ISTANBUL

Israeli Settlement Affairs Minister Orit Strock on Sunday denounced US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” as a “bad plan,” calling on Israel to occupy the Gaza Strip.

Speaking to the settler radio station Galey Israel, Strock said Israeli soldiers should not be sacrificed for “a flawed initiative.”

“We are not supposed to endanger our soldiers for this bad plan, and I may have to leave the government,” she said.

Her remarks came days after Trump signed the founding charter of the "Board of Peace” on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, formalizing a proposal he had put forward.

Strock questioned who would govern Gaza if Israeli forces re-entered and occupied the enclave, saying such a move would come at a heavy cost.

“Let’s assume the Israeli army really enters and occupies Gaza -- to whom would we hand it over? To the Palestinian Authority? We did that in 2005 and saw the result,” she said.

In 2005, Israel withdrew its forces from Gaza and dismantled settlements under a unilateral disengagement plan implemented during the tenure of then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

“Israel should remain the sole authority in Gaza after disarming the territory and defeating Hamas,” Strock said.

The current second phase of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, which took effect on Oct. 10, includes provisions calling for the disarmament of Hamas and other Palestinian factions, an additional Israeli military withdrawal from the enclave and the launch of reconstruction efforts.

Hamas has rejected calls to surrender its weapons, proposing instead that they be “stored or frozen.” The group stresses that it is a resistance movement against Israel, which the UN considers the occupying power in Palestinian territories.

Strock said she could not envision a single minister in Israel’s Security Cabinet voting to send soldiers to fight in Gaza only to later hand the territory over to Ali Shaath, the head of a Palestinian technocratic committee tasked with administering post-war Gaza.

“Until I see the prime minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) rein in this direction, I may eventually have to say: enough,” she said.

Trump announced the establishment of the "Board of Peace” on Jan. 15 as part of his broader plan for Gaza, under which the ceasefire agreement was reached. The board was later authorized by UN Security Council Resolution 2803 in November 2025.

According to the White House, Trump chairs the board, which is supported by a founding executive board composed of figures with experience in diplomacy, development, infrastructure and economic strategy.

Although the "Board of Peace” emerged in the aftermath of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, its charter does not explicitly reference the enclave, where about 2.4 million people, including roughly 1.5 million displaced, are living in dire humanitarian conditions.

The charter describes the board as “an international organization that seeks to promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict."

It grants Trump extensive lifelong powers, including veto authority and the appointment of members. Critics say this structure amounts to an attempt to bypass the UN.

The Israeli army has killed more than 71,600 people, most of them women and children, and injured over 171,300 in a brutal offensive since October 2023 that left Gaza in ruins.

Despite the ceasefire, Israel has continued to carry out attacks, killing 484 Palestinians and wounding 1,321, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.