UAE official calls for international force to provide 'law and order' in Gaza

The UAE has backed deploying an international force to provide "law and order" in the besieged Gaza Strip under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority, the clearest sign yet that Gulf powers are inching closer to an agreement for a post-war force in Gaza that the US has been lobbying for.

Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE’s former ambassador to the United Nations, now an assistant Minister for Political Affairs in the UAE, called for a “temporary international presence in Gaza” in an opinion article published in The Financial Times. 

Nusseibeh called for "a temporary international mission that responds to the humanitarian crisis, establishes law and order, lays the groundwork for governance and paves the way to reuniting Gaza and the occupied West Bank”.

The US is working to craft a plan for post-war Gaza security that would see a US-backed mission led out of Cairo, Egypt. Last month, Middle East Eye reported that the US was weighing plans to shift the Palestinian Authority’s security forces into Centcom’s area of responsibility. Israel was placed under Centcom's area of responsibility in 2021.

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