Israel Says Cease-Fire Began in Gaza As Questions Loom Over Its Future

By Michael R. Gordon, Summer Said and Omar Abdel-Baqui

Israel declared the start of a cease-fire in Gaza on Friday, the first step in a truce-for-hostages deal that will see a small contingent of U.S. support troops deployed to the region as part of an extraordinarily complex effort to keep the peace and establish a framework to govern the enclave.

Israeli troops withdrew on Friday morning from parts of the Gaza Strip as part of the cease-fire deal, Israeli and Arab officials said. The ceasefire started a 72-hour window for release of the remaining hostages in Gaza and allows for an influx of humanitarian aid into the territory.

Nearly 200 U.S. troops who report to Adm. Brad Cooper of the U.S. Central Command are scheduled to arrive in Israel by Sunday to establish a coordination center that will monitor the cease-fire and organize the flow of humanitarian aid, logistics and security assistance to Gaza.

There are no plans for the U.S. troops, who include planners, transportation and engineering experts and security experts, to set foot in

Gaza, U.S. officials reaffirmed on Friday.

President Trump has indicated he would be visiting Israel in the coming days. Israel said it was deploying thousands of police officers to prepare for a visit on Monday.

U.S. officials have begun discussing the establishment of a thousands-strong “International Stabilization Force” whose mission will be to secure the enclave. The precise composition of that force has yet to be determined, but it could potentially draw on troops from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Turkey, Morocco, Indonesia and perhaps some Central Asian nations, among others.

The U.S. involvement is a notable step for an administration that has frowned on nation-building missions abroad and has said its priority is on defense of the Western Hemisphere. But current and former officials said that a U.S. military and political role is essential if the goal is to cement the cease-fire and turn the first phase of the White House’s Gaza plan into a durable peace.

The move to recruit, organize and support the stabilization force will run alongside efforts to form a governing apparatus for Gaza that would provide essential services and run the enclave following the conflict that started after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 as hostages.

Under Trump’s plan Gaza would be governed by a technocratic committee of Palestinians that would be overseen by a “Board of Peace.” Trump would chair that board, and former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair would also have a role.

Assembling that technocratic committee could come with challenges. There are about 30,000 technical, administrative and security personnel in Gaza who are paid by the Palestinian Authority. They could potentially work on maintaining essential services and beginning a transition to Palestinian administration of the enclave as envisioned by Trump’s plan, a former U.S. official said. Trump’s earlier talk about moving the Palestinians out of Gaza, which drew widespread criticism in the region, has been shelved.

But political factors could complicate governance arrangements. The U.A.E, in contrast to Saudi Arabia, has been insisting that the Palestinian Authority be radically reformed before it could be given a substantial role in the eventual governance of Gaza.

Success in fielding an international stabilization force faces an array of challenges, especially the success in disarming Hamas. Diplomats have been talking about a process of “decommissioning” weapons.

Those “decommissioning” arrangements are to be worked out in the next phase of the negotiations, which are expected to start after hostages are released.

Preliminary planning for a stabilization force during the Biden administration envisioned a U.S. role in helping with logistics, transport, intelligence and support. The efforts were to be overseen by a U.S. general who would be based in Egypt.

That planning reflected the recognition that the U.S. military has unique capabilities in organizing expeditionary operations and met Arab appeals that Americans be involved. But the Biden administration ruled out putting boots on the ground in Gaza, and instead looked at having an Egyptian or Emirati commander head the stabilization force.

The Trump administration has yet to spell out its plans for how large the International Stabilization Force might be, how long it would need to be deployed and how precisely the U.S. might assist it from outside Gaza.

“We’re already talking to multiple governments about standing up that ISF force,” a senior U.S. official said on Thursday. “With Admiral Cooper, it’s going to become a lot easier.”

The White House has been at pains to underscore to its MAGA constituency that no U.S. troops will venture into the enclave. “No U.S. troops are intended to go into Gaza,” a second senior U.S. official said Thursday. “It’s really just to help create the joint control center and then integrate all the other security forces that will be going in there.”

The U.S. still has a small number of troops in Sinai to this day as part of the monitoring arrangement for the Camp David accords between Egypt and Israel.

A big question of some experts and former officials is whether Trump and his team will sustain the diplomatic pressure that has led to the imminent hostage release. “Will this be sustained beyond the declaration of a Trumpian victory?” one former U.S. official said. “All of this is going to take extraordinary leverage to make it happen.”