International troops won’t want to enforce peace in Gaza, Jordan’s king says

Countries would reject a request to “enforce” peace in Gaza if deployed under Trump’s cease-fire plan, Jordan’s King Abdullah told the BBC.

According to US President Trump’s 20-point peace plan, Arab states and international partners must commit a stabilization force that “will train and provide support to vetted Palestinian police forces in Gaza and consult with Jordan and Egypt, who have extensive experience in this area.” Hamas must disarm and relinquish political control over the territory.

“What is the mandate of the security forces in Gaza? And we hope it is peacekeeping, because if it is peace enforcement, nobody will want to touch it,” King Abdullah said.

In an exclusive interview with BBC Panorama, he said Jordan and Egypt were willing to train Palestinian security forces.

“Peacekeeping is that you sit there and support the local police force, the Palestinians, who Jordan and Egypt are willing to train in large numbers, but that takes time. If we’re running around Gaza on patrol with guns, that’s not a situation any country wants to get involved in.”

The king’s comments reflect the concern of the US and other nations that they will be drawn into an ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel or Hamas and other Palestinian groups.

King Abdullah has said he will not send Jordanian forces to Gaza because his country is “too close politically” to the situation. More than half of Jordan’s population is of Palestinian origin, and for decades the country has hosted 2.3 million Palestinian refugees fleeing previous wars with Israel, the largest number in the region.

Asked whether he believed Hamas would keep its promise to renounce any political role in Gaza, he said: “I don’t know them, but those who work extremely close to them – Qatar and Egypt – are very, very optimistic that they will follow through.”

“If we don’t solve this problem, if we don’t find a future for Israelis and Palestinians and a relationship between the Arab and Muslim world and Israel, we are doomed.

The main mediation efforts during the war were carried out by Qatar and Egypt working with the United States.

The Jordanians are part of an international effort trying to deliver aid to Gaza and evacuate sick and injured children. The king has flown over the territory on three missions, parachuting aid supplies.

“The view over the back ramp was just shocking,” he said. “The devastation of this part of Gaza was just a shock to me.

“I have seen it myself, and how we, as an international community, allow this to happen is mind-boggling.

The king asked for President Trump’s support for the evacuation of 2,000 seriously ill Palestinian children from Gaza. At a White House meeting with the Jordanian monarch in February, Mr Trump called it a “beautiful gesture”.

Since then, 253 children have been evacuated to Jordan. In total, more than 5,000 have been medically evacuated, most to Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. More than 15,000 Gazans are still awaiting evacuation, including about 3,000 children, according to the World Health Organization.

In order to take the children and their guardians out of the territory, they must undergo a thorough security check by Israel and the host countries. The World Health Organization described the process as “excruciatingly slow”. The Israeli military group that oversees aid to Gaza – Kogat – insists it attaches “great importance” to facilitating humanitarian aid to Gaza, including the evacuation of patients with “complex medical conditions”. It emphasizes the need for security checks on persons traveling through Israeli territory.

In her interview with Panorama, Queen Rania of Jordan criticized the international community for, as she put it, failing to stop the war for two years.

“Do you know what it’s like to be a parent for the last two years? Watching your children suffer, starving, shaking with terror and being powerless to do anything about it and knowing that the whole world is watching you and doing nothing about it. This nightmare, it’s every parent’s nightmare, but this nightmare has been a daily reality for Palestinians for the last two years.”

The Queen, who is of Palestinian descent, praised President Trump for his efforts to achieve a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. She said he used America’s diplomatic, military and financial support as leverage to influence Israel.

“To his credit, Trump was the first president in a long time to actually put pressure on Israel. Before, when they crossed the border, the president of the United States might just say a few words of rebuke or just get a slap on the wrist. President Trump actually got (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu to actually agree to a ceasefire. And I hope he continues to be engaged in that process.”

Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of prolonging the war by refusing to release Israeli hostages and said the organization – banned as a terrorist group by the UK, US and EU – was using civilians as human shields in Gaza. According to the Hamas-run health ministry in the territory, more than 68,000 people have been killed since Israel invaded Gaza.

Israel’s incursion followed an October 7 attack by Hamas in which more than 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, were killed and 251 taken hostage in Gaza. Arrest warrants for alleged war crimes have since been issued by the International Criminal Court against Mr Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Galant, as well as Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif, although Hamas later confirmed he was killed in an airstrike.

Trump’s signing of the cease-fire agreement also led to the release of 20 living Israeli hostages from Gaza as efforts to recover the remains of the dead continued. Israel released 250 Palestinian prisoners who had been convicted of crimes, including murder and deadly attacks on Israelis, and about 1,700 Gaza detainees who had been held by Israel without charge.

When I asked Queen Rania if she believed that lasting peace was possible, she said that the hope for it was not naïve, but a form of defiance.

“I truly believe that Palestinians and Israelis can exist side by side,” she said. “In the current atmosphere, there is too much hostility, too much anger and sorrow, hatred and cynicism between the two peoples for them to actually build peace on their own. I am not naive here. But I think with the pressure of the international community, this is the only way.”

“So many times in the last two years, hope has felt elusive. Choosing hope hasn’t been easy … it’s hard, it’s hard. But it’s the only path that doesn’t deny the Palestinians or betray their struggle or our humanity.”

With additional reporting by Alice Doyard, Suha Kawar, David McIlveen and Liam Connell.