The U.S. military is preparing options to deploy as many as 200 U.S. troops to Israel to support stabilization in Gaza and the flow of humanitarian aid and security assistance into the enclave, two U.S. officials familiar with the planning said.
The U.S. troops will stay in Israel, where they will support logistics, transportation, engineering and planning, the officials said.
“They will not be in Gaza. No U.S. boots on the ground in Gaza,” one of the officials said.
The effort, known as the Civil-Military Coordination Cell, comes after the announcement of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas that includes the release of hostages in Gaza and nearly 2,000 Palestinians who were detained after Oct. 7, 2023.
President Donald Trump, who said he is traveling to Egypt for an official signing, announced Wednesday that the “first phase” of the plan had been agreed to.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said early Friday local time that the Israeli government had approved the historic deal. It comes after a brutal two-year war that has ravaged the Palestinian enclave and sparked a global outcry.
The Hamas-led terrorist attacks killed 1,200 people in Israel. More than 67,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The ceasefire will take effect within 24 hours.
U.S. troops could begin arriving in Israel immediately, the officials said.
In addition to supporting aid and assistance into Gaza, the troops are expected to support the deconfliction mechanism between the two sides to make sure both are upholding their part of the security agreements.
The United States already has troops in Israel for various missions, including missile defense, and U.S. officials previously supported the deconfliction mechanism between Israel and Hezbollah during the ceasefire in Lebanon last year.
