US pushes to form international military force in Gaza: American officials

The United States is pushing for the creation of a so-called international military force to be deployed to the besieged Gaza Strip, American officials say, a move believed to be aimed at extending Washington’s influence in the region under the guise of “stabilization.”

The United States is moving to form the military force, two unnamed senior US advisers told Reuters on Wednesday, a plan Washington claims would help stabilize the Palestinian territory.

The formation of a US-backed “stabilization force” is one of the top requirements of American President Donald Trump's so-called 20-point Gaza plan, as tensions still remain high between Israeli forces and fighters of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.

“Right now what we're looking to accomplish is just a basic stabilization of the situation. The international stabilization force is starting to be constructed,” one adviser said, as Washington has already agreed to send up to 200 troops to support the force without being deployed in Gaza itself.

Hamas and the occupying regime reached a ceasefire deal based on Trump’s plan during indirect talks in Egypt earlier this month. The agreement saw the resistance movement pledge to hand over all the remaining living and dead Israeli captives.

According to the advisors, Washington has spoken to Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar, and Azerbaijan – among others – about contributing to the force.

They added that there were up to two dozen American troops in the region to help set up the operation, serving in a “coordination, oversight” role.

“The goal is to use all the different local partners who want to help and be involved,” one adviser noted.

US military will not get involved in Gaza: Trump

Meanwhile, Trump said that he does not see a reason for the US military to directly get involved in the blockaded Palestinian territory.

“I don’t see that - no. I think we’re going to handle it very well,” he said, adding that the US military would not be needed to disarm Hamas.

Trump threatens to ‘order Israel to return to Gaza’

US President Donald Trump threatens to order the Israeli regime to “return to Gaza’s streets.”

Hamas has so far handed back 20 living Israeli captives to Israel in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails. The movement has also handed over the remains of seven of the 28 known dead captives, saying it would be unable to retrieve any more bodies from the ruins of Gaza without specialized equipment.

"The Resistance has fulfilled its commitment to the agreement by handing over all living Israeli prisoners in its custody, as well as the corpses it could access. As for the remaining corpses, it requires extensive efforts and special equipment for their retrieval and extraction. We are exerting great effort in order to close this file,” said the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, in a statement.

This comes as the regime’s minister for military affairs, Israel Katz, warned that the occupation army would resume its military onslaught on the besieged territory.

“If Hamas refuses to comply with the agreement, Israel, in coordination with the United States, will resume fighting and act to achieve a total defeat of Hamas, to change the reality in Gaza and achieve all the objectives of the war,” a statement from Katz's office said.

Since October 7, 2023, the regime has killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and wreaked wholesale destruction on almost the entire expanse of the Gaza territory as part of its genocidal war.

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