The commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said Saturday he traveled to Gaza to talk about post-war stabilization and emphasized that American forces will not be deployed to the Palestinian territory.
Admiral Brad Cooper wrote on X that he just returned from a trip to Gaza to discuss creation of a CENTCOM-led "civil-military coordination center" which will "support conflict stabilization."
An initial deployment of 200 U.S. troops has begun arriving in Israel to help monitor the cease-fire in Gaza between Hamas and Israel under President Donald Trump's peace plan.
The U.S. military will coordinate a multinational taskforce which will deploy in Gaza and is likely to include troops from Egypt, Qatar, Türkiye and the United Arab Emirates.
Cooper was appointed in early August to lead CENTCOM, the U.S. military command responsible for the Middle East.
On Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of a 20-point plan he laid out on Sept. 29 to bring a ceasefire to Gaza, release all Israeli captives being held there in exchange for around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, and a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the entire Gaza Strip.
A second phase of the plan calls for the establishment of a new governing mechanism in Gaza without Hamas' participation, the formation of a security force comprising Palestinians and troops from Arab and Islamic countries, and the disarmament of Hamas.
Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed nearly 67,200 Palestinians in the enclave, most of them women and children, and rendered it uninhabitable.
