The US military is reportedly planning to divide Gaza into a “green zone” that will be under Israeli and international military control, where reconstruction activities will take place, and a “red zone” that will be left in ruins. This comes ahead of the UN Security Council vote on Monday (Nov 17) on a resolution to endorse US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan.
According to a Guardian report, citing US military planning documents, the international forces will initially be deployed alongside Israeli troops in east Gaza. The war-torn strip will be divided by the current Israeli-controlled “yellow line”, it added.
While the US has insisted that its plan is realistic, questions have been raised about Washington’s commitment to turn the ceasefire into an enduring political settlement with Palestinian control in the region, initially promised by Trump.
“Ideally, you would want to make it all whole, right? But that’s aspirational,” an anonymous US official told the Guardian. “It’s going to take some time. It’s not going to be easy.”
However, creating “green zones” in Gaza may risk drawing parallels with Afghanistan and Iraq, places marked with US military failures. Notably, Trump’s 20-point plan aims at demilitarisation of Palestinian armed groups in Gaza, and even an Israeli withdrawal to a “security perimeter” out of the territory. Meanwhile, activists have raised alarm over the need for urgent reconstruction in Gaza as more than 80 per cent of the structures in the region have been damaged and destroyed, including schools and hospitals.
According to Trump’s 20-point plan, a transitional body called the ‘Board of Peace’ will be created to govern the territory. The resolution would also authorise member states to form a “temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF)” that would work with Israel, Egypt, and newly trained Palestinian police to secure Gaza’s borders, oversee demilitarisation efforts, and help with “permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups.” The ISF would also support humanitarian access and civilian protection inside the territory.
“The first step is we have to get the [resolution]” by the UNSC resolution, the US official said. “Countries are not going to make firm commitments until they actually see the language that has been passed.” The US president earlier ruled out the possibility of putting any US soldiers on Gaza soil to ensure the withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the enclave and to start the reconstruction process.
