US is planning to build 'large military base' near Gaza to oversee post-war plan

The US is planning to establish a "large military base" just outside the Gaza Strip as part of a post-war peace plan for the territory, and could play a key role in the formation of a multinational peacekeeping force.

The facility would reportedly be capable of hosting thousands of US troops and aid the International Stabilisation Force (ISF) for Gaza, according to an investigative report by Israeli news site Shomrim.

The multinational force, likely to include troops from mediators Egypt and Qatar, is a key part of Trump's post-war governance plan for Gaza, which lies in ruins after two years of relentless Israeli bombing.

Trump's plan helped to develop a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on 10 October and the framework for a post-war order, but the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave has not improved with ongoing Israeli strikes and aid restrictions.

The ISF is supposed to train and support vetted Palestinian police in the Gaza Strip, with backing from Egypt and Jordan.

It will also be tasked with securing border areas and preventing weapons smuggling to Hamas.

The new US base near Gaza would help American forces take direct control of what happens on the ground in Gaza and rely less on Israeli cooperation in dealing with other parties involved – including Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, or Egypt, the report said.

The US has pushed the matter forward with the Israeli government and military and is now scouting for potential sites in the Gaza periphery to build the base, at an expected cost of around $500 million, Shomrim reported.

Unnamed security sources said it was difficult to overstate the significance of the move and that the establishment of the base and deployment of US forces would indicate a strong role from Washington in post-war Gaza, the sources told the Israeli outlet.

But Washington had repeatedly ruled out American boots on the ground in Gaza.

The next phase of Trump's plan, which would discuss a post-war transitional authority and disarmament of Hamas, remains unclear.

Widely recognised to be a genocide, Israel's two-year war in Gaza has killed more than 69,000 people, the vast majority of casualties being civilians.

The war has displaced most of the Strip's 2.3 million people and left much of it in ruins.