US commander says 20,000 soldiers, 12,000 policemen planned for Gaza

Washington: Jasper Jeffers, the commander of the newly-created International Stabilization Force (ISF) under a Gaza peace deal, said that the ISF would ultimately comprise 20,000 soldiers working with 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, Xinhua news agency reported.

The governments of Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan and Albania, as well as the Kosovo authorities, have committed troops to the ISF that 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.

IANS