Egypt planning to create Gaza security force with 10,000 Palestinian officers

Cairo reportedly eyeing the creation of a 1,000-officer Gaza security force, with plans to expand to 10,000 officers as Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip.

By World Israel News Staff

Egypt is planning to create a new Palestinian security force to police the Gaza Strip, replacing Hamas and the IDF, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

Under the terms of the Trump administration’s Gaza peace plan, Israeli forces withdrew from roughly a quarter of the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire went into effect last Friday.

The IDF, which previously controlled over three quarters of the coastal enclave, now holds 53% of the Strip.

Should the peace deal be fully implemented, Israel will gradually withdraw from additional areas in Gaza, handing them over to a temporary International Stabilization Force, which will work with Egypt and Jordan to establish a “vetted Palestinian police” force in Gaza.

According to the report, Egypt has already drafted plans to create a new Gazan police force, beginning with 1,000 security personnel, who will be trained in Egypt and Jordan.

That scaled down Gaza security force will, under the Egyptian plan, be tasked with providing internal stability and enforcing security in areas where the IDF has withdrawn.

As Israel pulls out of additional territory in Gaza, the new Gazan police force will be progressively expanded, topping out at 10,000 officers.

The plan, including the ceiling of 10,000 officers, was drafted taking into account Israel’s likely objections to involvement by the Palestinian Authority, and to the presence of a larger security force on its southwestern border.

Cairo’s vision for the post-war security apparatus in Gaza, based on the US peace plan, leaves certain key issues unresolved, including several major areas of dispute between Egypt and Israel.

Chief among them is the future of the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah Crossing.

While Egypt has long objected to Israel resuming its control over the Philadelphi Corridor – a strip of land in southern Gaza along the Egyptian border, including the Rafah Crossing into Egypt – Jerusalem has in the past insisted on maintaining security control over the area.

The US peace plan provides for a gradual handing over of Gaza to the temporary ISF, but is deliberately vague on the details, calling for “an agreement” between Israel and the ISF setting the precise extent of the IDF withdrawal.

While the 20-point plan calls for Israel to remove its forces from Gaza gradually “until they are withdrawn completely,” it also permits Israel to retain a “security perimeter that will remain until Gaza is properly secure from any resurgent terror threat.”