Washington, February 20 – Jasper Jeffers, the commander of the newly-created International Stabilization Force (ISF) under a Gaza peace agreement, said that the ISF would ultimately comprise 20,000 soldiers working alongside 12,000 Palestinian police officers in the Gaza Strip.
Training for the ISF and a Palestinian police force would take place in Egypt and Jordan, Jeffers said at the inaugural meeting of the US-proposed Board of Peace, according to Xinhua news agency.
The governments of Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, and Albania, as well as the Kosovo authorities, have committed troops to the ISF, which is supposed to deploy to Gaza, the US major general said. He did not provide details on the number of troops pledged by each or the deployment timeline.
US President Donald Trump said at the meeting that nine countries – Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, and Kuwait – have pledged a combined $7 billion for Gaza relief, far short of the $70 billion estimated for reconstruction.
"There will be no reconstruction of the Gaza Strip before its (Hamas') demilitarization," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly said at the Israel Defense Forces officers' graduation ceremony on Thursday.
Trump formally launched the Board of Peace in the Swiss city of Davos last month. The US-led group has been met with doubts and indifference, as many countries expressed concerns that it could overlap or undermine the role of the United Nations.
European Council President Antonio Costa said that the EU has serious doubts about many elements of the Board of Peace, including its scope, governance, and compatibility with the UN Charter.