US Army General Jasper Jeffers, who has been appointed as the head of a future Gaza stabilization force by Trump’s board, said on Thursday that the Indonesian contingent to the mission has “accepted the position of deputy commander”.
“With these first steps, we will help bring the security that Gaza needs,” Jeffers said during a meeting of the board in Washington, D.C., Al Jazeera reported.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, who was among several world leaders participating in the meeting, said his country would contribute up to 8,000 personnel to the planned force “to make this peace work” in the war-torn Palestinian territory, where Israel’s genocide has killed at least 72,000 people.
Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said his country will also send an unspecified number of troops, including medical units, to Gaza, while Morocco’s Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said that his country is ready to deploy police officers to Gaza.
Albania, whose prime minister recently made a two-day official visit to the occupied territories, has also said it will contribute troops, while neighboring countries Egypt and Jordan have said they will participate by training police officers.
Indonesia, which was one of the first countries to commit to sending troops, has sought to reassure potential critics that its participation is intended to ensure international law is upheld in Gaza, amid the Israeli regime’s genocidal onslaught.
Palestinians have voiced concerns that Trump’s Board of Peace will only further entrench Israel’s illegal occupation of the Gaza Strip, as Israeli forces continue to carve out more “buffer zones” and restrict the entry of food and other aid, months into a so-called “ceasefire” with Hamas, during which almost 600 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks.
The Gaza stabilization force differs from other peacekeeping forces deployed by multilateral organizations such as the UN or the African Union.
In neighboring Lebanon, more than 10,000 peacekeepers from 47 countries continue to participate in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which was created in 1978.
Indonesia, along with Italy, is one of the largest contributors of troops to UNIFIL, which has repeatedly come under fire from Israeli forces, despite a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.