The Board of Peace international stabilisation force has drawn support from just five countries.
Photo: JULIA NIKHINSON / AFP
Weeks after pulling its only liaison officer out, New Zealand is still weighing up the options to support Gaza, amid international reports that the US-led peace plan has stalled.
It has re-iterated it won’t be joining the Board of Peace in Gaza in its current form.
The board’s international stabilisation force has had only a handful of countries committed to it since February.
Since October, New Zealand has been gathering information through the liaison officer at the Civil-Military Co-ordination Centre in Israel. Reuters and Haaretz have reported the centre itself was being shut down in an embarrassment for the Trump Administration, something the administration denied.
The liaison officer had approval to stay until early May, but withdrew in late March.
“The liaison officer was withdrawn once sufficient information had been gathered to help inform future decisions about New Zealand’s potential contributions to support Gaza,” Defence Minister Chris Penk said.
“Officials continue to assess options for future support to Gaza and will provide advice in due course.”
Penk did not say if one option might be joining the stabilisation force. His three-line statement on Thursday laid out no options and he did not say when any decisions would be made.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said New Zealand’s position on the Trump-led Board of Peace [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/585444/christopher-luxon-confirms-he-won-t-join-donald-trump-s-board-of-peace-for-gaza
had not changed], since it rebuffed an invitation to join up in January.
“We see a role for the Board of Peace in Gaza to be carried out as mandated by the UN Security Council,” Peters told RNZ.
“However, New Zealand will not be joining the board in its current form. We will continue to monitor how it develops in the future.”
Labour said New Zealand should help support humanitarian aid, as well as “calling out Israel’s actions and defending the rights of Palestinians”.
This week, Reuters reported that a further sign of stalled progress of the peace plan had been an increase in Israeli strikes in Gaza in the last five weeks since the ceasefire in the Iran war.
‘Gaza neglected’
The US President had encouraged allies to deploy personnel to the Civil-Military Co-ordination Centre in Israel and commit funds for reconstruction under a 20-point peace plan following the two-year war that killed more than 70,000 people.
“No funds were committed,” an MFAT spokesperson said.
New Zealand twice extended the liaison officer’s stay, because they had not gathered enough information to weigh up the options.
A commentary from leading thinktank Chatham House last week was headlined, ‘The Iran war has left Gaza neglected’.
Few countries had expressed interest in the stabilisation force, it said.
“There remains a lack of clarity over its mission and doubts about whether it will actually be deployed if that entails direct confrontation with Hamas in Gaza.”
The stabilisation force had the same five countries committed as back in February – Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Albania. Egypt and Jordan had pledged to train police.
‘Strong impetus’
New Zealand had a “strong impetus” to contribute to the peace efforts in Gaza, and a “strong interest” in resolving the conflict in a way that promoted regional and international stability, said a defence briefing to ministers in January, now proactively released.
At the time, in January, there was not enough to go on, “particularly given that neither the BoP nor the ISF have been stood up”.
The arguments for and against a three-month extension were laid out, but three paragraphs on the risks were entirely blanked out, as were all five paragraphs on legal considerations.
The briefing gave the Civil-Military Co-ordination Centre credit for co-ordinating 4200 trucks of humanitarian aid since the October ceasefire.
Labour foreign affairs spokesperson Vanushi Walters said the party was deeply concerned that the people of Gaza continued to suffer seven months since the ceasefire.
“Israel has pushed further into Gaza, forcing Palestinians into tent camps, where the conditions are appalling,” Walters said. “Israel also continues to deny humanitarian access to the United Nations, and attacks on humanitarian workers and convoys.
“This is unacceptable and an egregious breach of international law.”
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