Hamas and Israel have said yes to the American Donald Trump’s plan to pacify Gaza. Once the most radicals have been defeated, the pressures have been overcome, it is time to get down to work: we must stop the weapons, free the hostages, release the prisoners, let in humanitarian aid and partially withdraw the troops.
That is the immediate thing, but it is natural that our eyes are now on the future, out of the desire for the stages to pass and a way out for Gaza to truly be found, one that allows dignity and justice for its neighbors and an urgent reconstruction. It is number 15, the one referring to security in the area. It reads: “Regional partners will ensure that Hamas and the factions meet their obligations and that New Gaza does not pose a threat to its neighbors or its population. The United States will work with Arab and international partners to develop a temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF) that will immediately deploy to Gaza. The FIS will train and support Palestinian police forces accredited in Gaza and consult with Jordan and Egypt, which have extensive experience in this area.”
And more: “This force will be the long-term solution for internal security. The FIS will collaborate with Israel and Egypt to help secure the border areas, together with newly trained Palestinian police forces. It is essential to prevent the entry of ammunition into Gaza and facilitate the rapid and safe flow of goods to rebuild and revitalize Gaza. The parties will agree on a conflict deterrence mechanism.”
Basically, Israel’s agreement for a force to replace its army in Gaza is far from assured, especially because Tel Aviv does not clarify the deadlines and percentages of its total withdrawal and because it is not defined who will provide personnel to that force. What do we know about her, for now?
As reported this morning, the US Army will send 200 soldiers to the Palestinian strip, but for now it will be to join the humanitarian supervision tasks within the framework of the implementation of the first phase of the peace agreement. According to the country’s Central Command, the troops sent will establish a “civil-military coordination center” in both Israeli and Palestinian territory.
The troops, he details, will work together with soldiers from other countries such as Egypt, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates – all of them involved in the mediation that has brought the agreement to fruition -, as part of support for what has been signed now. That of the troops whose objective is to guarantee compliance with security and observe the actions of local forces.
Military sources cited by the EFE Agency added that this deployment in the Middle East has been practiced with the troops in recent months and assure that the security plans that will be developed will be shared with the Israeli authorities.
But beyond this humanitarian reinforcement, it remains to be seen how multilateral supervision mechanisms are established to guarantee that neither party engages in offensive actions, seeking to lay the foundations for future negotiations towards a broader and more lasting solution in the region. That’s where other countries, possibly Arab and European, come in. Formally, the first to have offered their participation are Indonesia and Italy, but in recent hours commitments, especially European ones, have accelerated.
The French president, , stressed this Thursday that the international community must get involved in this transitional security force. At the opening of a ministerial meeting held in Paris with the participation of a dozen European and Arab countries, the liberal announced that France is willing to contribute with a peace contingent “to train and equip the Palestinian security forces.” The objective is that this force can be formed in a later phase when the peace plan adopted this morning is complemented.
That French request for other countries to commit to this security force, conditional on that, was received with nuances by Paris’ allies. Among the European participants who spoke out, Italy was more willing to get involved, while Spain was cautious. The Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, clarified that a (UN) mandate must be “defined before being able to decide” on Spanish participation, although he nevertheless gave some signs of openness.
“If we want to think about a future for Gaza and that it can be with a properly Palestinian governance, Palestinian security forces will be needed and providing training is something that we Europeans certainly know how to do perfectly, together with the Arab countries,” Albares told the media. “We are still very far from that, something like that is not even proposed,” he insisted, while defending that Spain “has always been willing to participate in those peacekeeping forces that have a clear mandate.” As an example, he used the , under UN mandate, which until recently was led by a Spanish general, Aroldo Lázaro.
The Spanish minister noted that at the meeting held in Paris “there was a lucid hope,” because all participating countries are “aware of the immense challenges and fragility of the entire (peace) process, which is not even beginning.”
For her part, the High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, defended that the Twenty-Seven should initially govern Gaza if a peace agreement is reached. Speaking to the press upon arriving at the conference, Kallas stressed that Europe is ready to be part of the transitional authority and recalled that the EU is the largest donor to Palestine. “I believe,” said the head of EU diplomacy, “that, given what we bring to the table, we should be at it.”
At the end of the meeting, the French Foreign Minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, took stock of the conference. He paid tribute to “the joint efforts of the international community and first of all of the United States and (its president) Donald Trump” for the ceasefire agreement. “Attention must be paid to the following phases,” he said in a statement to the press, before insisting that “a political solution must be drawn on the horizon,” that of the two states that was adopted in September.
In yesterday’s meeting in Paris, in which the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, withdrew at the last minute, the French hosts, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Egypt and the European Commission (EC) participated.
