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Planning Under Way for International Force in Gaza, Say US Advisers

FILED - 08 February 2025, Palestinian Territories, Deir al-Balah: Fighters of the Ezz al-Din Al-Qassam brigades, the military wing of Hamas form a corridor as Israeli hostages get delivered to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
FILED - 08 February 2025, Palestinian Territories, Deir al-Balah: Fighters of the Ezz al-Din Al-Qassam brigades, the military wing of Hamas form a corridor as Israeli hostages get delivered to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
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Planning Under Way for International Force in Gaza, Say US Advisers

FILED - 08 February 2025, Palestinian Territories, Deir al-Balah: Fighters of the Ezz al-Din Al-Qassam brigades, the military wing of Hamas form a corridor as Israeli hostages get delivered to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
FILED - 08 February 2025, Palestinian Territories, Deir al-Balah: Fighters of the Ezz al-Din Al-Qassam brigades, the military wing of Hamas form a corridor as Israeli hostages get delivered to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa

Planning has begun for an international force to go into Gaza to stabilize security in the Palestinian enclave, two senior US advisers said on Wednesday.

One of the top requirements of President Donald Trump's 20-point Gaza plan was formation of a US-backed stabilization force. The United States has agreed to provide up to 200 troops to support the force without being deployed in Gaza itself.

The two senior advisers, in a briefing for reporters, said tensions remain high between Israeli forces and the Hamas group in the enclave, Reuters reported.

"Right now what we're looking to accomplish is just a basic stabilization of the situation. The international stabilization force is starting to be constructed," one adviser said.

Among the countries the US is speaking to about contributing to the force are Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar and Azerbaijan, said the adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The advisers said there were up to two dozen US troops in the region to help set up the operation, serving in a "coordination, oversight" role.

"The goal is to use all the different local partners who want to help and be involved," the adviser said.

After Hamas killed seven men in Gaza City it accused of collaborating with Israel, the advisers said there were discussions to establish safe zones for civilians to prevent such incidents.

The second adviser said that no Gazans would be forced to leave the battered Palestinian enclave. Officials are looking at rebuilding in areas that are free of Hamas militants.

Trump has said he would like to see the enclave rebuilt and has pledges of investment from various international partners, but that this effort will take time. The advisers also said patience was needed for the recovery of dead Israeli hostages, saying it will take longer than expected because their remains are buried under rubble and unexploded ordnance.

They said there are discussions about offering rewards for information leading to the discovery of remains.

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Arab World

Israeli Strikes Pound South, East Lebanon

Plumes of smoke billow from southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes, as seen from Marjeyoun, Lebanon May 24, 2026. (Reuters)
Plumes of smoke billow from southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes, as seen from Marjeyoun, Lebanon May 24, 2026. (Reuters)
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Israeli Strikes Pound South, East Lebanon

Plumes of smoke billow from southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes, as seen from Marjeyoun, Lebanon May 24, 2026. (Reuters)
Plumes of smoke billow from southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes, as seen from Marjeyoun, Lebanon May 24, 2026. (Reuters)

Israeli strikes hit south and east Lebanon on Sunday, state media reported, a day after 11 people were killed in a single raid on the south despite a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

Saturday's strike in Sir al-Gharbiyeh "resulted in a massacre whose final toll is 11 dead including a child and six women, and nine wounded including four children and a woman," Lebanon's health ministry said in a statement.

Israel's military has continued to strike what it says are Hezbollah targets in Lebanon despite a ceasefire that began on April 17 and that was recently extended for several weeks.

The Iran-backed group has also maintained attacks on Israeli targets in southern Lebanon and across the border, including firing rockets on Sunday at Israeli troops operating on Lebanese territory.

Lebanon's official National News Agency reported Israeli strikes on multiple locations in south and east Lebanon on Sunday, in some cases causing casualties.

Some of the raids came before the Israeli military issued two evacuation warnings covering more than a dozen villages in Lebanon's south and the eastern Bekaa valley.

An AFP correspondent saw large clouds of smoke rising after strikes on the south's Nabatieh and Zawtar al-Sharqiyah.

Lebanon's civil defense agency said early on Sunday that its regional facility in Nabatieh had been destroyed by an overnight Israeli strike.

An AFP photographer saw civil defense personnel recovering equipment and using a stretcher to remove oxygen bottles from the rubble.

The Israeli army did not immediately provide any comment on the strike in response to an inquiry from AFP's Jerusalem bureau.

- Iran -

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah, whom the US sanctioned this week, said Sunday that "major transformations are taking place in the region", amid anticipation that a US-Iranian agreement to end the Middle East war was close.

Iran "has made its agreement with the United States conditional on stopping the war in Lebanon", he said, according to a statement.

On Saturday, Hezbollah said its chief Naim Qassem had received a message from Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, saying Iran's latest proposal through Pakistani mediators emphasized "the demand to include Lebanon" in the broader ceasefire.

Fadlallah said that "the war will not just stop in Iran, but across the whole region, particularly in Lebanon", urging Lebanese authorities to "take advantage of this regional umbrella... which will have repercussions on us".

Lebanese authorities recently began landmark direct talks with Israel under US auspices, and have insisted the discussions must be independent from the Iran-US negotiations.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 with rocket fire at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran's supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes.

Under the terms of the ceasefire published by Washington, Israel reserves the right to act against "planned, imminent or ongoing attacks".

Israeli troops who invaded Lebanon are also operating inside an Israeli-occupied "yellow line" running around 10 kilometers (six miles) deep along Lebanon's southern border.

Arab World

Gaza Hospital Says Child among Three Killed in Israeli Strike

Residents inspect the rubble of a building that belongs to the Palestinian family of Abu Saif and was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Residents inspect the rubble of a building that belongs to the Palestinian family of Abu Saif and was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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Gaza Hospital Says Child among Three Killed in Israeli Strike

Residents inspect the rubble of a building that belongs to the Palestinian family of Abu Saif and was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Residents inspect the rubble of a building that belongs to the Palestinian family of Abu Saif and was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A pre-dawn Israeli airstrike killed three members of a Palestinian family, including a one-year-old child, in central Gaza on Sunday, a hospital said.

Gaza remains gripped with daily violence despite a formal ceasefire in place since October, with both the Israeli military and Hamas accusing one another of violating the truce, says AFP.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir el-Balah said it had received the bodies of a couple and their infant after an Israeli strike hit a residential apartment in the Al-Nuseirat camp before dawn.

The hospital said around 10 people were wounded.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military about the three deaths, though it said it had struck three Hamas weapons storage facilities in central Gaza over the preceding 24 hours.

A ceasefire has been in place in Gaza since October, but Israel reserves the right to strike targets it deems a threat.

At least 890 Palestinians have been killed since the October 10 ceasefire, according to Gaza's health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.

The Israeli military says five of its soldiers have also been hit during the same period.

Media restrictions and limited access in Gaza have prevented AFP from independently verifying casualty figures or freely covering the fighting.

Arab World

Iraq’s Nujaba Movement Warns against ‘US Plot’ to Integrate PMF in New Security Ministry

Slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei (R) and Nujaba Movement leader Akram al-Kaabi in Tehran in December 2018. (Supreme leader’s website)
Slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei (R) and Nujaba Movement leader Akram al-Kaabi in Tehran in December 2018. (Supreme leader’s website)
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Iraq’s Nujaba Movement Warns against ‘US Plot’ to Integrate PMF in New Security Ministry

Slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei (R) and Nujaba Movement leader Akram al-Kaabi in Tehran in December 2018. (Supreme leader’s website)
Slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei (R) and Nujaba Movement leader Akram al-Kaabi in Tehran in December 2018. (Supreme leader’s website)

The Iran-aligned Nujaba Movement in Iraq warned on Saturday against an “American plot” to merge the pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in state institutions, presenting new Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi with his first test in imposing state monopoly over arms.

It made its warning in wake of a visit to Iraq earlier this week by former US Central Command Commander David Petraeus, who also previously led US forces stationed in Iraq.

The new Iraqi government appears to be a taking a tougher stance against the Iran-aligned armed factions in the country in wake of attacks launched from Iraq against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have said the attacks were launched from Iraqi territory. Zaidi has slammed the attacks as “criminal acts”.

Spokesperson for the Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces Sabah al-Numan said the committee probing the attacks will cooperate with Riyadh and Abu Dhabi to uncover the perpetrators.

“The official statements are not up for debate: the security of our brothers is a read line and there can be no replacing the rule of law,” he said in statements carried by the official state news agency INA.

Any party found responsible for the attacks will face judicial and military measures, he vowed, adding that the attacks were a “threat to Iraq’s national security and flagrant violation of its sovereignty”.

On the state monopoly over arms, al-Numan said the decision “is not a mere political slogan, but a security strategy that must be implemented.”

“The success of the government will be measured by how much it establishes itself as the sole party that holds power over weapons,” he stressed.

Prominent armed factions, such as the Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, have not made any statements over the recent developments.

The Nujaba Movement, however, has openly defied the state’s decision to impose monopoly over weapons.

The party, which is seen as the most hardline, has also rejected attempts to restructure the PMF.

Deputy head of the movement’s executive council Hussein al-Saeedi said: “The resistance’s weapons are not open to compromise.”

“Stripping the factions of their weapons will leave society exposed to the ongoing threats,” he declared from Basra.

He also slammed as an “American plot” the alleged plan to merge the PMF with the federal police and other forces as part of a new “federal security ministry”.

He said such efforts are “futile” and “impossible to execute”, warning that insisting on forging ahead with the plan will have “political and popular implications.”