Israel has prevented construction of a military outpost intended to accommodate international troops in Gaza under US President Donald Trump's Board of Peace initiative, potentially delaying the broader reconstruction program, The Guardian reported Wednesday.
According to a source with direct knowledge of the project, Israeli authorities have not authorized contractors or construction vehicles to enter Gaza, despite the contract having been awarded more than two months ago.
The Board of Peace, an international body authorized by the United Nations in 2025 and chaired by Trump, awarded its first Gaza construction contract in early August to Arkel International, a Louisiana-based company.
Under the agreement, Arkel was to establish a fortified military installation for approximately 150 troops serving as the initial contingent of an international stabilization force.
However, the project has yet to begin because Israel has not permitted the company to move personnel and equipment into the territory.
“Israel won’t open the border," the source told The Guardian.
The proposed installation, described as a “mission support site temporary outpost", would occupy an area measuring approximately 100 by 100 meters.
According to the source, the location was previously associated with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the now-defunct US-backed aid distribution initiative that operated in Gaza between May and October 2025, using private security contractors to protect its operations.
The planned base would accommodate rotating deployments of 150 heavily armed international troops, drawn from a larger force of 500 personnel already dispatched from Morocco and Kosovo.
The source claimed that establishing the military outpost was essential to launching the Board of Peace's other activities in Gaza, including reconstruction and infrastructure development.
“You can’t get in without [an international stabilization force (ISF)]. You can’t rebuild," the source explained.
“There’s no security. There’s no deliveries of construction equipment. You can’t even start putting utilities. You can’t start putting in basic life-support facilities you know because without the ISF you can’t go in."
Representatives of the Board of Peace declined to address the report, while the Israeli government and the Israel Defense Forces also declined to comment.
The Board of Peace was established following the October 2025 ceasefire in Gaza and has become a central component of Trump's efforts to present his administration as having brought an end to the conflict.
Although numerous Western democracies have declined to participate, 28 countries joined the organization as founding members earlier this year.
On September 23, the Board of Peace announced a proposed six-month reconstruction initiative valued at $2.45 billion.
The plan was presented as the opening phase of a broader redevelopment effort projected to cost approximately $71 billion over ten years.
Earlier this week, Kan 11 News reported that Israel has approved the entry of an American company working on behalf of the Board of Peace into the Gaza Strip in the coming days to identify and map locations where Hamas members could surrender their weapons for destruction.
The initiative is intended to advance a key stage of Trump's peace plan, which calls for Hamas to relinquish its weapons and for the Gaza Strip to be demilitarized.
Under the Board of Peace's plan, Hamas's surrender of its weapons is supposed to precede Israel's gradual withdrawal from the Strip. Israel would begin withdrawing from areas only after they had been cleared of terrorists, with those areas subsequently transferred to the administration of a technocratic government.
Hamas has consistently refused to relinquish its weapons.