European and U.S. officials are advancing a UN Security Council draft resolution that would authorize an international stabilization force in the Gaza Strip with broad powers to control security under Egyptian leadership, the Guardian reported on Saturday.
Under the proposal, the force would operate without being officially classified as a “peacekeeping” mission, a distinction the U.S. is emphasizing in negotiations. That would allow it to wield authorizations similar to those given to international troops in Haiti in recent years.
US President Donald Trump at the Gaza peace summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt
(Video: Fox News)
Potential troop contributors named in the initiative include Turkey, Indonesia and Azerbaijan, although British and U.S. combat units are understood to be excluded. Instead, Britain is sending advisers to a U.S.-led cell in Israel involved in implementing Phase B of President Donald Trump’s “20‑point” Gaza plan.
Concurrently, the Palestinian Embassy in Cairo announced that the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza will reopen on Monday, marking the first such reopening since the ceasefire took effect and following Israeli sanctions on Hamas for violating that agreement.
Britain has stressed that the end goal of the mission is a single Palestinian state encompassing the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. London has previously taken part in training the envisaged Palestinian police force, which Egypt and Jordan aim to grow to about 10,000 personnel.
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Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
(Photo: Martin Sylvest / RITZAU SCANPIX / AFP, Khaled DESOUKI / AFP, AP/Hassan Ammar)
The plan outlines conditions under which Israel would withdraw beyond what is called the “yellow line” agreed in Phase A of the proposal, though Israel insists on retaining a large buffer zone inside Gaza to protect against renewed terror threats from Hamas.
Diplomats acknowledge that the process of dismantling Hamas’ heavy weapons arsenal will be the most difficult task. British officials have pointed to a model employed in Northern Ireland, in which third‑party verification was used to oversee arms decommissioning.
The U.S. military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) on Wednesday called on Hamas to stop its violence against civilians in Gaza and disarm "without delay" as the terrorist group reasserts itself by deploying security forces and executing those it deems collaborators with Israel.
Meanwhile, terrorists and Israeli forces in Gaza reportedly exchanged fire for the first time since the ceasefire took effect last week, including incidents in Khan Younis where terrorists emerged from a tunnel near the city and were struck “from the air … to remove the threat,” according to the IDF.