GAZA CITY — Thursday, October 15, 2026: Donald Trump’s flagship plan to rebuild Gaza is stalling before a single foundation has been laid, as Israel has refused to let contractors or construction equipment enter the Strip to build a military outpost for international troops, British media reported on Wednesday.
The outpost was the first construction contract ever issued in Gaza by the Board of Peace — the international body chaired by Trump that was authorised by the United Nations last year to oversee the enclave’s rehabilitation — and its delay is now freezing the wider $2.45 billion reconstruction roadmap, a source familiar with the project told The Guardian.
“Israel won’t open the border”
In early August, the board awarded the contract to Arkel International, a Louisiana-based construction firm, to build a fortified compound measuring roughly 100 by 100 metres on a site previously used by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the newspaper reported. The outpost was designed to house rotating deployments of 150 heavily armed international troops — drawn from a 500-strong contingent already deployed from Morocco and Kosovo — as the vanguard of a planned International Stabilisation Force of 20,000 personnel.
More than two months later, workers and trucks are still being prevented from crossing into Gaza, the source said. “Israel won’t open the border,” the source told the newspaper. The Board of Peace, the Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli government all declined to comment on the report.
The wider $2.45 billion plan at risk
Board officials describe the outpost as the essential first step of the entire reconstruction programme: without a stabilisation force on the ground, international teams cannot secure worksites, bring in heavy machinery, lay basic utilities or install life-support infrastructure, sources said.
“You can’t get in without an international stabilisation force. You can’t rebuild,” the source said. “There’s no security. There are no deliveries of construction equipment. You can’t even start putting utilities. You can’t start putting in basic life-support facilities.”
Planners now expect Israel to grant the entry permits only after the country’s general election on October 27, leaving the first phase of the $2.45 billion roadmap effectively paralysed until then, reports said.
An election-season freeze
The reported freeze comes one year after the October 2025 ceasefire, which required Israeli forces to withdraw to a designated Yellow Line that left them in control of roughly half the Gaza Strip. Over the past year, Israeli forces have repeatedly pushed concrete boundary markers westward — notably in Shujayea — and now control an estimated 60 per cent of the enclave, confining Gaza’s two million residents to a shrinking coastal strip, reports said.
The timing has drawn scrutiny because Israel’s political calendar is looming over every regional decision. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday he was not seeking a fresh strike on Iran before the October 27 vote, while rival politicians have accused him of weighing military action for electoral advantage — claims his office denies, Israeli media reported.
For the Board of Peace, the stakes are reputational as well as practical. The body, whose executive board includes US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, was meant to demonstrate that the October 2025 ceasefire had delivered a workable post-war settlement. Until the outpost’s contractors are let through the border, that settlement remains on paper only.
