The Israeli government has approved the entry of the International Stabilization Force (ISF), as part of efforts to demilitarize post war Gaza, protect humanitarian aid, and train a new Palestinian police force.
The approval comes a day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to visit Donald Trump in Washington, DC in the United States.
The ISF will operate in the areas that are not under Israeli control.
The ISF is part of 20-point “peace plan,” under the “Board of Peace” constituted by US Donald Trump to oversee post-war governance, security, and reconstruction in Gaza.
An Israeli official reported on Sunday that Israel’s security cabinet had approved the key legal measures and that the force would operate “in full coordination with” the Israeli military, according to the Times of Israel.
There was no timeframe given for when the ISF, which will include 200 people from “friendly countries such as Uganda and Morocco”, according to the Reuters news agency, will be deployed.
The cabinet determined that Israel will have the authority to approve which countries can send forces.
The plan also called for an international “Board of Peace” to oversee the administration and reconstruction of the strip, for the creation of a National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) technocratic governing body, and for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw from the strip.
Nickolay Mladenov, the director-general of the Gaza Board of Peace, welcomed the news.
