Egypt 'wants US to head Gaza stabilisation force and insists on Turkey's participation'

Egypt wants the Gaza stabilisation force envisaged in US President Donald Trump's peace plan to be led by US forces and include Turkey, as part of its conditions for participating, sources told The National on Wednesday.

Cairo's involvement will also be conditional on a UN Security Council resolution that spells out the force's mandate and caps the duration of its deployment in postwar Gaza, the sources said.

“Egypt will only take part in the force if its mandate is primarily to maintain security and safeguard stability in Gaza; not to fight armed factions in the territory,” said one of the sources.

Egypt, along with Qatar, the US and Turkey, has been mediating in the Gaza war since its outbreak in October 2023, although Ankara's role has only recently come to the fore. The two Arab nations and non-Arab but Muslim and Nato member Turkey are close US allies. They also maintain close ties to Hamas.

According to the sources, Egypt wants Israel to agree to a truce of up to 10 years to give Hamas and other armed factions in Gaza enough time to hand over their weapons to be decommissioned and stored under international supervision.

These factions would use the time to transform themselves into non-violent political groups and become part of the Palestinian political landscape under the umbrella of the occupied West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, which is internationally recognised as the representative of the Palestinian people.

The revelations of Egypt's conditions and its negotiating goals came as a US diplomatic blitz was under way to ensure the swift and full implementation of Mr Trump's 20-point Gaza plan − the latter phases of which are significantly more difficult to introduce than the initial stage that began the October 10 ceasefire.

Under the plan's first phase, Hamas released 20 Israeli hostages last week and handed over the remains of 15 out of 28 deceased hostages. Israel has freed nearly 2,000 Palestinians who had been detained in Israel and returned the bodies of nearly 200 others.

The next phases provide for Hamas's disarmament, the governance of postwar Gaza, a long-term ceasefire and the deployment in the territory of the International Stabilisation Force.

US Vice President JD Vance, US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Mr Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner were in the Middle East this week to cement the ceasefire and discuss the next phases of the plan.

Egypt's chief of intelligence, Hassan Rashad, visited Israel on Tuesday to discuss the plan with US and Israeli officials. He was due to hold talks with Hussein Al Sheikh, Vice President of the Palestinian Authority, and Maged Farag, the Palestinian Authority's intelligence chief, in Cairo later on Wednesday.

“We have a very, very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas but rebuild Gaza, to make life better for the people of Gaza, but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel,” Mr Vance said in Jerusalem on Wednesday, after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli leader gave an example of the challenges ahead when he spoke to reporters after his talks with Mr Vance.

He said decisions on the stabilisation force would be made in discussion with the US. However, he appeared to reject any role for Turkey in the force. “I have very strong opinions about that. You want to guess what they are?” he said.

Sources told The National earlier this week that Egypt was likely to lead the stabilisation force, with Turkey, Indonesia and Azerbaijan contributing troops to the 4,000-strong contingent.

They said the force would initially be deployed in areas from which the Israeli military had withdrawn and expand its area of operations as Israeli troops pulled back further in accordance with the ceasefire deal.

The sources did not offer a reason for the change in Egypt's position on who would lead the stabilisation force, but explained that having the US at the helm would lend additional weight to the force and ensure greater safety for its members.

While in Israel, Mr Rashad also discussed the reopening of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, the sources said.

The crossing was closed in May 2024 when Israeli troops captured its Gaza side, along with a narrow strip of land along the Palestinian side of the Gaza-Egypt border.

Egypt and other countries want the crossing reopened to allow more humanitarian assistance to enter Gaza and for seriously ill and wounded Gazans to be able to leave and seek medical care abroad.

It also wants Palestinians who fled the war and sought refuge elsewhere to return home through the crossing.

The Gaza war was triggered by Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel in which about 1,200 people were killed and some 240 abducted. Israel responded with a devastating military campaign that has killed at least 68,234 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Gaza.

The Israeli campaign has also displaced most of Gaza's 2.3 million residents and laid waste to much of the enclave's built-up areas. It has created a humanitarian crisis, with hundreds of thousands facing hunger and, in some cases, famine.

Israel's military conduct in Gaza has also given rise to charges of genocide and led to Israel's isolation in the international community.

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