The U.S. military is coordinating plans to send up to 200 U.S. soldiers to Israel to augment stabilization in Gaza and the delivery of humanitarian aid and security support into the strip, two U.S. officials involved in the planning process said.
The American forces will remain in Israel, where they will provide logistics, transportation, engineering, and planning support, the officials added.
“They will not be in Gaza. No U.S. boots on the ground in Gaza,” one official stated.
The act, dubbed the Civil-Military Coordination Cell, follows the declaration of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas involving the release of hostages in Gaza and almost 2,000 Palestinians who were arrested following Oct. 7, 2023.
President Donald Trump, who announced that he is visiting Egypt to formally sign, said Wednesday that the “first phase” of the plan had been reached.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced in the early hours of Friday local time that the Israeli cabinet had sanctioned the historic accord. It follows a ruthless two-year conflict that has devastated the Palestinian enclave and provoked an international outcry. Hamas-led terrorist operations killed 1,200 Israelis. Over 67,000 are dead in Gaza since then, the Palestinian Health Ministry says.
The ceasefire is to come into effect within 24 hours.
U.S. soldiers may start arriving in Israel straight away, the officials added.
Apart from augmenting aid and support to Gaza, the soldiers will be tasked with supporting the deconfliction mechanism between the two nations to ensure that both are respecting their side of the security agreements.
The United States has already stationed troops in Israel for different tasks, including missile defense, and U.S. officials had earlier supported a deconfliction mechanism between Israel and Hezbollah during last year’s ceasefire in Lebanon.
