The U.S. reportedly sent several UN Security Council members a draft resolution on Monday for the establishment of an international force in Gaza for a duration of at least two years. The draft resolution, which Axios claims to have obtained, would give the U.S. and other participating countries a broad mandate to govern Gaza and provide security through the end of 2027, with the possibility of extensions after that. It will be the basis for negotiations over the coming days between UN Security Council members, with the goal of voting to establish it in the coming weeks and deploying the first troops to Gaza by January, a U.S. official told Axios.
The U.S. official stressed that the International Security Force (ISF) will be an “enforcement force and not a peacekeeping force,” and is to be overseen by the Board of Peace, which President Donald Trump has said he will chair. According to the draft, the ISF would be tasked with securing Gaza’s borders with Israel and Egypt, protecting civilians and humanitarian corridors, and training a new Palestinian police force, with which it is to partner in its mission.
The ISF would also “stabilize the security environment in Gaza by ensuring the process of demilitarizing the Gaza Strip, including the destruction and prevention of rebuilding of military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, as well as the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups,” the draft states. This, Axios says, suggests that the mandate includes disarming Hamas, if the group or elements within it don’t do so voluntarily.
