میدل-ایست-آی'A rock and a hard place:' Arab peacekeepers will face pitfalls and perils in Gaza
'A rock and a hard place:' Arab peacekeepers will face pitfalls and perils in Gaza
What would Arab or Muslim troops patrolling Gaza do if they came under Israeli fire? Arab diplomats and officials with experience in peacekeeping say the potentially explosive scenario hovers over plans for an "International Stabilisation Force" to deploy to the enclave.
“This is not hypothetical. Unifil peacekeepers in southern Lebanon came under attack from Israel,” a United Nations official with decades of peacekeeping experience in the region told Middle East Eye, referring to peacekeepers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) who were hit by several Israeli strikes over the last two years.
“There, we had Irish and Italian troops who acted with restraint. How would Egyptian or Jordanian soldiers respond if they come under Israeli fire?” the diplomat asked.
Both Egypt and Jordan have peace treaties with Israel, but those agreements are managed by spy chiefs, diplomats and high-ranking military officials because their populations and rank-and-file soldiers are largely hostile to Israel over its occupation of Palestinian territories.
After Israel invaded the southern border town of Rafah in May 2024, two Egyptian soldiers were killed in an exchange of fire with Israel.
