Egypt said on Monday that it was willing to deploy forces in the Gaza Strip as part of an international force backed by a U.N. Security Council resolution, AFP reported.
“We are standing ready of course to help, to contribute to any international force to be deployed in Gaza in some specific parameters,” Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said at a joint press conference with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa at the Rafah border crossing into Gaza from the Egyptian side.
Abdelatty stressed that a potential deployment must have a “clear-cut mandate” from the international community, adding that a “political horizon” for Palestinians is a second condition.
He went on to remark that such a political framework would enable international troops to help Palestinians “realize their own independent Palestinian state in their homeland,” per AFP.
The Palestinian prime minister emphasized that, “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.”
According to the newspaper, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt’s top diplomat further stated that his country “rejects all attempts at displacement” of the Palestinian people—publicly opposing U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to resettle Gazans in neighboring countries.
He moreover expressed his support for the Palestinian people in their “suffering and resilience.”
The minister’s comments come on the backdrop of reports that Cairo has delivered a new proposal to Hamas for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
A Palestinian official, who spoke to AFP anonymously, said the proposal formulated in Cairo and Doha is a “framework agreement to launch negotiations on a permanent ceasefire,” calling for an initial 60-day truce and the release of hostages in two batches.
The official suggested that Hamas will review the offer through internal consultations among its leadership.
The plan involves a “ceasefire agreement lasting 60 days, during which 10 Israeli hostages would be released alive, along with a number of bodies,” a source from the terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad said, according to AFP.
The source added that all Palestinian “factions are supportive of what was presented” by the Egyptian and Qatari mediators, according to the report.
Last week, the Egyptian foreign minister said Cairo intends to train 5,000 Palestinian police officers to help restore order in Gaza after the current Hamas-Israel war ends.
In an interview with Egyptian media, Abdelatty noted that the training has already begun and hundreds of officers are participating at this stage.
Abdelatty said the deployment of the officers and the rehabilitation of Gaza after the war would be carried out under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority’s prime minister.
According to Israeli authorities, Palestinian terrorist factions in Gaza continue to hold 50 hostages, of whom 20 are believed to be alive. During the Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, 251 people were kidnapped to the Strip. Hamas also holds the body of IDF Lt. Hadar Goldin from 2014.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Saturday night his support for an agreement with Hamas to end the war in Gaza, but only if it meant the release of all the remaining hostages.
“We will agree to an agreement in which all the hostages are released at once and according to our conditions for ending the war, which include the disarmament of Hamas, the demilitarization of the Strip, Israeli control of the perimeter, and the establishment of a governing authority that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority, and that will live in peace with Israel,” the premier said, according to his office.
