That EU plans to significantly expand border protection and police missions in conflict areas to support the US peace plan in the Gaza Strip. According to information from the German Press Agency, at the meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels today it will be agreed to offer appropriate EU commitments to Israel and Palestine and, if necessary, to adjust the mandate of the operation.
Therefore, the EU could play a leading role in establishing a new police force in the West Bank through the Eupol Copps mission, currently based in the West Bank. Gaza Strip playing and training around 3,000 Palestinian security forces in the medium term. The long-term goal is to train all 13,000 employees estimated to be needed.
In the short term, Eupol Copps will also support the reconstruction of justice and security structures in the Gaza Strip and organize a training program for Palestinian police trainers at the police academy in Jericho financed by Germany, among others.
So far the civil ones have been successful POLICE in Gaza under the control of the terrorist organization Hamas. According to a recently passed UN Security Council resolution, the new police force must work closely with a planned international stabilization force.
EU deployment at border crossings
The plan is also in place Brussels for the expansion of the European Union’s border protection operations in the Gaza Strip. According to DPA information, support can also be provided in the smooth flow of goods traffic in the future, not only at the Rafah crossing, but also at checkpoints such as Kerem Shalom. As a first step, it is planned that the border protection mission will again provide support to people crossing the border into and out of Gaza after the planned reopening of the Rafah crossing.
In the past, France has specifically campaigned for an expanded mandate. Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot recently told an EU meeting in Luxembourg that it was important to ensure that large amounts of humanitarian aid reached Gaza safely. The expansion of the Eupol Copps police mission could also disrupt the terrorist organization’s planned disarmament process Hamas support in the Gaza Strip.
The border protection mission has existed since 2005
The European Union Border Support Mission in Rafah (Eubam Rafah) was established in 2005 to help control the only border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. However, after the Islamist group Hamas came to power in the Gaza Strip in 2007, no EU personnel were on the border for a long time because the EU did not want to cooperate with Hamas.
The resumption of operations earlier this year had to be halted after a while because the fundamental agreement between Hamas and Israel to end the Gaza war could not be implemented. After a ceasefire was negotiated between Israel and Hamas, it is now scheduled to restart. Germany is currently providing four experts for the mission and three for the Eupol Copp police operation.
Support for reform and reconstruction
Apart from security in the Gaza Strip, population supply and reconstruction must also be supported. The European Union has accepted Egypt’s offer to jointly organize a reconstruction conference. A new donor group will also support the Palestinian Authority (PA) in carrying out reforms so that it can one day take over government in the Gaza Strip.
US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, recently endorsed by the UN Security Council, stipulates, among other things, that the Gaza Strip will initially be managed as a transitional administration by a committee of non-political experts. This committee will consist of Palestinians and qualified international experts and will be supervised and monitored by a new international transitional body – the “Peace Council”, which Trump wants to lead.
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