Ugandan and Burundian military officials visited Israel last week to discuss deploying troops to Gaza for an international security force envisioned by U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, a plan that would put more armed men between civilians and the people claiming to manage their lives. The force is supposed to help monitor the ceasefire, train Palestinian police and secure the delivery of aid. Same old script. New uniforms.
The State Monopoly in a New Costume
A Board of Peace official told The Associated Press that Ugandan officials joined a Burundian military delegation, and that Uganda is finalizing details of its participation after its parliament approved the troop contribution this month. Nothing has been finalized with Burundi, but the official said they look forward to starting the process. The language is bureaucratic, but the reality is blunt: armed institutions are negotiating over who gets to police Gaza next.
A Burundian military official told the AP that three other senior military officers led the delegation to Israel and that Burundi appeared intent on joining. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. It was not clear what Uganda or Burundi might be offering or what they might receive in return. Spokespersons for their militaries did not respond to requests for comment. The public gets a security plan. The militaries get a closed-door arrangement.
Uganda has committed around 1,200 personnel, and Morocco has committed up to 500. Kosovo, Kazakhstan and Albania in total have committed around 80. Indonesia earlier said it was preparing to send 8,000 troops, by far the largest commitment, but put that on hold after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran. The numbers keep climbing and the force still falls far short of the 20,000 troops the plan calls for. The gap says plenty. States can announce deployments faster than they can assemble them.
Who Gets the Guns, Who Gets the Bill
The 20,000-strong force would be led by U.S. Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers. Troops committed remain far short of that goal. Last month, Trump announced a deal for Hamas to disarm and for Israel to withdraw its forces from Gaza. According to the deal, the International Stabilization Force would be deployed to areas of the Palestinian territory administered by an incoming technocratic committee, and Israeli forces would withdraw. The force would help monitor the ceasefire, train Palestinian police and secure the delivery of aid, among other tasks.
That technocratic committee is doing a lot of work in the sentence. It sounds clean, neutral, managerial. It also sounds like another layer of rule over a territory already carved up by armed authorities. The ceasefire that took effect in Gaza last October has stalled due to disagreements regarding Israel’s withdrawal from the strip and Hamas’ disarmament. The armed groups and the state apparatuses keep bargaining over the terms, while everyone else waits for the next round of enforcement.
A U.S. delegation met for hours earlier this month with the Hamas leader and then with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to press them forward. Hamas has agreed to the new U.S. deal. Netanyahu has rejected it, saying Israel will not withdraw from any of the roughly 60% of the territory it controls in Gaza until Hamas has been completely disarmed. Even after Netanyahu’s meeting with the U.S. team, which included negotiator Jared Kushner, officials offered no concrete commitment by Israel. The diplomats arrive, the statements pile up, and the occupation machinery keeps its options open.
Aid, Security, and the NGO Mirage
The force would also secure the delivery of aid. That phrase always sounds humane until you remember who controls the checkpoints, the guns and the paperwork. Aid becomes another managed flow, another channel supervised by armed institutions and international managers. The people on the ground are left to receive what the system decides to let through.
Paul D. Williams, director of the security policy studies program at The George Washington University, said Uganda and Burundi have gained considerable peacekeeping experience through long-term deployments in Somalia as part of an African Union force resisting the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group. Their countries’ leaderships have "shown they are willing to tolerate high numbers of casualties without withdrawing," he said. Williams added that, with the mission in Somalia winding down, both countries will be searching for ways to accrue financial and material support for their militaries: "Deploying to Gaza with U.S. support is one way to do that."
There it is, stripped of the peacekeeping varnish. Financial and material support for militaries. U.S. support. Gaza as a new contract site for armed institutions looking for funding, relevance and a fresh mandate. The civilians living under the arrangement don’t appear in that calculation except as terrain.
A Ugandan military officer with knowledge of the upcoming deployment said troops were being selected to go to Gaza. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to the press. The machinery keeps moving, one anonymous briefing at a time, while the people who will live under it are told it’s for stability.