Egypt announced on Monday its willingness to join a potential international force deployed to the war-torn Gaza, but only if supported by a UN Security Council resolution and accompanied by a “political horizon,” as ceasefire efforts continued in Cairo.
Egypt has consistently called for Palestinian unity under the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), an umbrella group that leads the Palestinian Authority and excludes the militant group Hamas.
The Palestinian Authority previously governed the Gaza Strip before losing power in 2007 during violent clashes with Hamas, whose October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel triggered the current conflict in the region.
“We are standing ready, of course, to help, to contribute to any international force to be deployed in Gaza within specific parameters,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty stated at a joint press conference with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa at the Rafah border crossing on Monday.
“First of all, to have a Security Council resolution, to have a clear-cut mandate, and of course to come within a political horizon,” Abdelatty explained.
“Without a political horizon, it will be nonsense to deploy any forces there.”
Abdelatty mentioned that a political framework would enable international troops to operate more effectively and support Palestinians “to realize their own independent Palestinian state in their homeland.”
The Palestinian Prime Minister, Mustafa, mentioned that a temporary committee would manage the territory after the war ended, with full authority resting with the Palestinian government.
“We’re not creating a new political entity in Gaza. Rather, we are reactivating the institutions in the State of Palestine and its government in Gaza,” he said.
While Hamas has previously welcomed the idea of a temporary committee to “oversee relief efforts, reconstruction, and governance,” it remains uncertain whether the group is willing to relinquish control of the territory.
In an interview with US network Fox News earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israel planned to seize complete control of the Gaza Strip but did not intend to govern it.
“We don’t want to keep it,” the prime minister said, adding that Israel wanted a “security perimeter” and to hand over the Palestinian territory to “Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening us.”
On Monday, Hamas negotiators in Cairo received a new proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza war, a Palestinian official said, with the prime minister of key mediator Qatar also in Egypt to push for a truce.
