Military officials from Uganda and Burundi visited Israel last week to discuss deploying troops to Gaza as part of an international stabilization force envisioned under U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace initiative, officials said Sunday.
A Board of Peace official said Ugandan representatives joined a Burundian military delegation for the talks, with Uganda now finalizing details of its participation after its parliament approved a troop contribution earlier this month. Nothing has yet been finalized with Burundi, though the official said discussions were expected to move forward, describing the exchange as productive and noting Burundian representatives had expressed interest in joining the mission.
Trump announced a deal last month under which Hamas would disarm and Israel would withdraw its forces from Gaza, with the International Stabilization Force deployed to Palestinian-administered areas to help oversee the transition. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the broader withdrawal terms, saying Israeli troops will not leave the roughly 60% of Gaza they currently control until Hamas is fully disarmed. Even after a recent meeting between Netanyahu and a U.S. delegation that included negotiator Jared Kushner, officials said Israel offered no concrete commitment on the matter.
Paul D. Williams, director of the security policy studies program at George Washington University, said Uganda and Burundi bring substantial peacekeeping experience from years of deployment in Somalia, where their forces have taken part in an African Union mission against the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militant group. He said both countries’ leaderships have shown a willingness to sustain significant troop losses without withdrawing, a trait that could make them attractive contributors as the Somalia mission winds down and their militaries look for a new deployment.
The talks mark an early step toward assembling the stabilization force outlined in Trump’s Gaza plan, which remains contingent on further disarmament and security arrangements that have yet to be finalized between Israeli and Palestinian officials.
