Washington, Feb 20 || Jasper Jeffers, the commander of the newly-created International Stabilization Force (ISF) under a Gaza peace deal, said that the ISF would ultimately comprise 20,000 soldiers working with 12,000 Palestinian police officers in the Gaza Strip.
Training for the ISF and a Palestinian police force would take place in Egypt and Jordan, Jeffers said at the inaugural meeting of the US-proposed Board of Peace, news agency reported.
The governments of Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan and Albania, as well as the Kosovo authorities, have committed troops to the ISF that is supposed to deploy to Gaza, the US major general said. He did not provide details on the number of troops pledged by each or the deployment timeline.
US President Donald Trump said at the meeting that nine countries -- Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and Kuwait -- have pledged a combined $7 billion for Gaza relief, far short of the $70 billion estimated for reconstruction.
"There will be no reconstruction of the Gaza Strip before its (Hamas') demilitarization," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly said at the Israel Defense Forces officers' graduation ceremony on Thursday.