Indonesia has trained some 20,000 troops to participate in the International Stabilization Force envisioned in U.S. President Donald Trump’s post-war plan for the Gaza Strip, the country’s defense minister announced Friday.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, is among the countries with which Washington has discussed contributing forces to Gaza following the Trump administration-brokered Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement, which took effect on Oct. 10.
“We’ve prepared a maximum of 20,000 troops, but the specifications will revolve around health and construction,” said Indonesian Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, according to Reuters. “We are waiting for further decisions on Gaza peace action.”
He added that no determinations have yet been made regarding the timing of deployment or the mandate of the troops.
The International Stabilization Force, intended to provide security in Gaza until a Palestinian body can assume governance of the Strip, would not be required to take action against Hamas, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Wednesday night, noting that the terror group has agreed to disarm.
The ISF “shouldn’t be a fighting force, because the agreement that was signed and … all parties agreed to calls for the demilitarization of Hamas,” said Rubio.
The role of the interim force is to provide “just basic everyday security,” he continued.
“If you want to really flood Gaza, particularly in that red area that’s not in Israeli control, if you really want to see a huge uptick, not just in humanitarian assistance, but redevelopment, you’re going to need to have security. And that can’t be Hamas,” he stressed.
The IDF currently holds about half of Gaza. It is deployed to the east of a so-called Yellow Line that runs through the north, center and south of the Strip, with Hamas controlling the enclave’s western areas.
“Eventually there won’t be a Yellow Line,” Rubio went on to say.
“Eventually there’ll be Gaza and none of it will be controlled by Hamas. ... There should be a civilian Palestinian organization that runs Gaza. And that’s the goal, to stand that organization up, give it capacity, allow it to grow in both capability and credibility, and ultimately it will govern Gaza,” he said.
“The Israelis don’t want to govern Gaza, we don’t want to govern Gaza, no country in the Middle East wants to govern Gaza. But it’ll take some time to build up that [Palestinian] capability, and in the interim, someone has to provide security,” the secretary added.
