U.S. troops have begun to arrive in Israel to set up a coordination center that will oversee implementation of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, two officials told ABC News.
No U.S. troops will enter Gaza, the officials said.
According to one U.S. official, the 200 troops being sent to Israel specialize in transportation, planning, logistics, security and engineering. They will be working alongside representatives from other partner nations, the private sector and nongovernmental organizations.
The coordination center is seen as a kind of first step in helping to implement the peace process, which will require extensive coordination of humanitarian, logistical and security assistance.
The troops being sent to Israel to create the military-led command center are trickling in through the weekend with various components flying in from the U.S. and the Middle East.
Adm. Brad Cooper, who oversees U.S. troops across the region as head of U.S. Central Command, which is based in Tampa, Florida, was in Israel as of Friday, officials said.
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that both Israel and Hamas had “signed off” on the first phase of a peace plan in Gaza following negotiations in the Egyptian Red Sea city of Sharm el-Sheikh.
The Israeli government ratified the deal on Thursday, after which a ceasefire came into effect on Friday.
Phase one of the deal will see all remaining hostages returned from Gaza, a number of Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails and the partial withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces inside the strip.
Trump said the agreement represented “the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace.”
Intense and deadly Israeli attacks on Gaza City — the largest urban area in the Gaza Strip — and elsewhere in the devastated Palestinian territory continued into Thursday.
