US seeks deployment of Gaza force

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

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US SECRETARY of State Marco Rubio shakes hands with Israeli Brigadier General Yaakov Dolf as he visits the Civil-Military Co-ordination Centre in southern Israel this week.

(AFP)

TOP US diplomat Marco Rubio voiced hope on Friday of soon putting together an international force to police the ceasefire in Gaza, as Palestinian factions agreed that a committee of independent technocrats would run the postwar territory.

The secretary of state visited Israel on the heels of US Vice-President JD Vance as part of an all-out effort by the US to persuade both Hamas and Israel to respect the truce.

Rubio said it was critical for the deal to create “the conditions for the stabilisation force to come in as soon as it possibly can be put together”.

He expressed optimism for a durable end to the two-year Gaza war as he met Israeli, US and other Western forces monitoring the ceasefire from inside a vast converted warehouse in southern Israel.

The deal, spearheaded by US President Donald Trump, calls for an international force to oversee security after Israel’s ceasefire with Hamas, whose unprecedented attack on October 7, 2023 sparked a war that has left Gaza in ruins.

The main Palestinian factions, including Hamas, said on Friday they had agreed during a meeting in Cairo that a temporary Palestinian committee of independent technocrats would take over the running of Gaza.