Israel pressing US to alter UN draft on Gaza multinational force: Report
Israel is exerting last-minute pressure on the US to change the wording of a draft UN Security Council resolution concerning the planned deployment of a multinational force in Gaza, according to the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation Kan.
The broadcaster reported that close associates of the PM, along with senior officials in the Foreign Ministry, have been holding intensive talks with US counterparts before the vote expected tomorrow.
What do we know about the Gaza stabilisation force?
As we’ve been reporting, the UN Security Council (UNSC) is poised to vote tomorrow on a draft resolution for the deployment of the international stabilisation force (ISF) in Gaza, a key tenet of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan. Here’s what we know so far:
- The force is expected to send around 20,000 multinational troops to Gaza to secure borders, train Palestinian police and demilitarise Hamas. A draft of the text circulated last week says the force may use “all necessary measures”, meaning force, to carry out its mandate.
- The draft also references a potential future Palestinian state, with conditions creating a “credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood”.
- Washington has spoken with Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar, Turkiye and Azerbaijan about contributing troops to the force – but which countries will actually commit remains unclear. The US does not plan to send its own troops.
- Israeli officials have pushed back on various elements of the ISF, however, and are adamant that they will not allow Turkish troops on the ground. They have also reiterated that they will not accept a Palestinian state.
- Russia, meanwhile, proposed its own draft of a UN resolution on Gaza in a seeming effort to challenge Trump’s plan.
- As the US pushes the UNSC to back its plan over Russia’s, Israel is making a last-minute bid with US officials to change the draft’s wording, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation Kan reports.
Not a single mention of any Palestinian representation being involved in any of this....
Hamas, other resistance factions reject Gaza stabilisation plan
Palestinian resistance factions are calling on Algeria – a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council – to reject the plan for stabilisation forces to be deployed in Gaza.
The UNSC is slated to vote on a draft tomorrow that would allow roughly 20,000 foreign troops – empowered to use force – to secure Gaza’s borders, train Palestinian police and demilitarise police.
In a statement, the resistance factions called the efforts “a new attempt to impose another form of occupation on our land and people, and to legitimise foreign trusteeship”.
“We direct a sincere and fraternal appeal to the Algerian Republic, government and people, to continue adhering to its principled positions supporting Palestine, and its steadfast rejection of any projects targeting Gaza’s identity and our people’s right to self-determination,” the statement added.
The leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Maher al-Tahir, separately said the current plan’s danger “lies in turning the Gaza Strip into an area outside Palestinian governance” with a transitional phase that “may last for years, which poses a significant danger and keeps the Gaza Strip under a new occupation”.
Israeli-Estonian citizen is behind shadowy organisation arranging flights out of Gaza: Report
Israeli newspaper Haaretz is reporting the identity of a person with alleged links to Al-Majd Europe.
As we’ve been reporting, a chartered plane carrying 153 Palestinians landed near Johannesburg Thursday, confusing South African officials and prompting a wave of scrutiny into the organisation that arranged the flight – in exchange for hefty fees that passengers paid to personal accounts.
Using a previous version of the Al-Majd website, Haaretz found the logo of another company – Estonian Talent Globus – that advertised “conditions for voluntary emigration from the Gaza Strip”.
Talent Globus was registered last year by Tomer Janar Lind, an Israeli-Estonian citizen who previously registered four companies in the United Kingdom and has a UK phone number.
When reached by Haaretz, Lind “did not deny his involvement in arranging the departures from Gaza but refused to say who is behind the organization”, the outlet reported.
