Egypt, Jordan to train Palestinian police force

Plans are afoot for Palestinians to recruit their own police officers to be trained outside of Israel.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said on the 14th August that lists have been finalised for Palestinian police personnel undergoing training in Egypt and Jordan for deployment in Gaza according to Qatari-owned Middle East Monitor. This is to address the security vacuum that is currently existing within the region.

Abdelatty told local broadcaster DMC TV that around 5,000 Palestinian police officers will be trained in Egypt to take part in Gaza’s security administration after Israel’s war and invasion comes to an end.

He stated that Egypt and Jordan are currently cooperating to prepare Palestinian security personnel to manage the enclave and avoid a security vacuum. Egypt and Jordan, both of which have long-standing peace treaties with Israel, have positioned themselves as key mediators in discussions over Gaza’s post-war governance. The proposed training programme is seen as part of wider international governance to rebuild the Palestinian authority’s administrative capacity once the Israel-Gaza war ends, allowing for an avoidance of the instability that could allow armed groups like Hamas to take over.

The top diplomat said Cairo will host an international conference for Gaza’s reconstruction, during which Egypt’s vision for administering the strip after the war will be announced.

Abdelatty added that an agreement has been reached on 15 prominent figures from Gaza to run the territory for 6 months, stressing that the Palestinian Authority is the sole legitimate body entitled to govern Gaza. This refutes Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu’s 11th August assertion that Gaza would be run by a ‘non-Israeli civilian administration’ after the occupation of Gaza city.

He claimed thst the planned administration will by run by third parties, not including ‘Hamas or the Palestinian Authority’. This comes following his apparent endorsement of Israeli plans to invade Gaza city ‘to end the war’.

Israel is facing mounting condemnation for its war in Gaza, where it has killed more than 61,700 victims since October 2023.

Middle East Monitor, Maghrebi.Org