Commander of international stabilisation force outlines plan for deployment
General Jasper Jeffers, who has been appointed commander of the International Stabilization Force (ISF) planned for Gaza, has outlined the plan for deployment.
Jeffers said “US military experts” have been preparing the infrastructure for the ISF for months, operating from a joint operation centre in Israel.
“Our plan is for the ISF to be assigned in five different sectors, each sector receiving one ISF brigade. In the short term, we plan to deploy to the Rafa sector first, in addition to the training of police,” he said.
He said the midterm plan “is to continue to expand sector by sector, all moving to our long term, 12,000 police and 20,000 ISF soldiers”.
Jeffers also said that Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Albania have committed troops to the force, while Egypt and Jordan have agreed to train police.
He added that Indonesia has “accepted the position of deputy commander for the ISF. With these first steps, we will help bring the security that Gaza needs for our future prosperity and enduring peace”.
Experts have warned that ISF deployment will likely be a non-starter without an end to Israeli ceasefire violations and a voluntary Hamas disarmament agreement.
Gaza’s coastline worth $50bn, Apollo Global Management CEO says
Marc Rowan, the CEO of Apollo Global Management and an executive board member of the Board of Peace, has spoken about the estimated investment potential of Gaza.
“The potential here is tremendous,” Rowan said, claiming that the Gaza coastline alone offers “$50bn in value on a conservative basis”.
The board first plans to start building 100,000 homes for about 500,000 people plus $5bn in infrastructure, Rowan said, while “gathering Gaza’s productive assets in one unified structure”.
“It just needs to be unlocked and financed,” he said.
Trump has frequently described Gaza as a real estate venture.
Unlocked as in get the Palestinians out of the way...
World Bank Group president says will serve as ‘limited trustee’ managing donor funds
Ajay Banga has also addressed the summit, saying the World Bank will serve as the “limited trustee” of donor funds, meaning it will “manage the donor contributions coming in… and then we help to manage that money while it stays with us”.
Banga said that “under the direction of the Board of Peace, we disperse the money for reconstruction and development projects in Gaza”.
He said that the Board of Peace “takes the ownership of ensuring that the right kind of financial, legal and oversight mechanisms are being put in place”, but that the World Bank has assigned a financial controller “on a secondment basis… to ensure that we can try and help build the best standards in this process”.
“Now this is just the beginning. This work is going to need two or three things that the World Bank Group can bring to the table. The first is leveraging of public finance”, he said.
“The second is, we can de-risk private investing. And the third is we have people on the ground [with] expertise and knowledge of doing this kind of work in other markets”, he said.
AKA how can we funnel more tax dollars into the pockets of billionaires.
