UN Security Council approves US plan for Gaza stabilisation force

The UN Security Council has approved the US ceasefire plan for Gaza, which includes the deployment of an International Stabilization Force to the Strip.
Hamas has rejected the presence of foreign military personnel in Gaza, saying it would be exchanging Israeli occupation for “foreign guardianship”.
Concerns remain over Palestinian participation in implementing UN resolution
More from Daniel Forti, the analyst at the International Crisis Group.

He told Al Jazeera that concerns about accountability, political oversight, and Palestinian participation in the Board of Peace and the International Stabilisation Force were “absolutely valid”.

Still, “we do see this resolution as an opportunity for the entire international community to give a bit more oomph to the ceasefire deal at a moment when everything is quite precarious,” he said.
Diplomacy should not stop here, he said.

“There needs to be considerable attention paid now to how all of these institutions get stood up, even if the Security Council doesn’t have a formal role in this and the US and its Arab partners are using both multilateral fora and bilateral channels to work out some of the finer details of this,” he said.

“Without more political engagement, without a process that is credible to the Palestinians, implementation of any of these provisions is going to be incredibly challenging,” Forti added.
What does the Gaza resolution say about Palestinian statehood?
While the resolution does mention a possible future Palestinian state, it does so in a convoluted manner.

The text says that “conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood” once the Palestinian Authority has carried out a reform programme and Gaza’s redevelopment has advanced.

It also says that the US “will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous coexistence”.

The reference to a future possibility of statehood for the Palestinians has proved controversial in Israel.

Netanyahu, who is under pressure from right-wing members of his government, said on Sunday that Israel remained opposed to a Palestinian state and pledged to demilitarise Gaza “the easy way or the hard way”