U.S. officials said on Thursday that America will send roughly 200 troops to Israel to support and monitor the Gaza ceasefire deal.
They will work alongside military personnel from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which were all involved in ceasefire negotiations.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) will reportedly assign these troops to establish a “civil-military coordination center” to provide logistical and security assistance to postwar Gaza, including protection for shipments of humanitarian aid.
The team will also monitor the implementation of ceasefire agreements, and the transition from Hamas tyranny to rule by a civilian government in Gaza.
According to unnamed U.S. officials who briefed the media, none of the American personnel will be sent into Gaza. The precise location of the coordination center is evidently still under discussion, but it will be located in either Israel or Egypt.
Staff for the civil-military coordination center will be experienced in logistics, engineering, and security. Some of these troops are already in Israel, while others are in transit from CENTCOM bases across the Middle East.
The deployment will be overseen by Admiral Brad Cooper, who was involved in the ceasefire talks hosted by Egypt this week. President Donald Trump called Cooper’s work “fantastic” during an open Cabinet meeting on Thursday.
One of the items in President Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan was the creation of an International Stabilization Force (ISF) that would be swiftly deployed into Gaza. The ISF is supposed to coordinate with Egypt, Jordan, and Israel to train carefully vetted Palestinian security forces, secure the borders of Gaza, and ensure terrorists cannot steal humanitarian aid, interfere with rebuilding efforts, or obtain weapons.
The ISF will seemingly be an entirely separate operation from the U.S.-led civil-military coordination center. It is not yet clear where ISF personnel will be recruited from, or what rules of engagement they will operate under.
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