The Media Line: Egypt Advances Plan To Build 10,000-Member Palestinian Security Force for Post-War Gaza  

Egypt Advances Plan To Build 10,000-Member Palestinian Security Force for Post-War Gaza  

By The Media Line Staff  

Egypt has begun moving hundreds of young Palestinians through a series of police training courses intended to shape a future security structure for Gaza once the fighting ends, officials involved in the effort told Saudi media. The program, run quietly for months in coordination with Ramallah, is designed to produce a 10,000-member force drawn entirely from the Gaza Strip and financed by the Palestinian Authority.  

The initiative was first made public when Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in August that Egypt intended to prepare 5,000 officers. A pilot group completed a course in Cairo in March and staggered two-month sessions resumed in September. Officials say several hundred trainees have already rotated through the facilities, with additional classes planned.  

Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas has tasked Interior Minister Ziad Hab Al-Reeh with managing the coordination with Cairo. Under a framework negotiated in Egypt late last year, Hamas and Fatah agreed that half of the proposed 10,000-member force would come from new Egyptian-trained recruits, with the remainder drawn from Gaza’s existing police. Oversight would fall to a technocratic committee approved by all participating factions. A senior Hamas figure told AFP the movement supports “the details regarding security and management of the Gaza Strip” reached in those talks.  

International actors have folded the concept into broader diplomatic tracks. President Donald Trump’s peace initiative, credited with paving the way for the current ceasefire, references a multinational security deployment responsible for border stability and demilitarization. European officials are separately weighing an EU plan to train up to 3,000 additional officers, expanding an existing EU mission in the West Bank.  

Major political questions remain unresolved. Israeli leaders have rejected any return of Hamas or the Palestinian Authority to governing Gaza. Hamas, while saying it does not seek to rule the territory again, maintains armed patrols that function as de facto law enforcement and insists it will consider relinquishing weapons only within a comprehensive Palestinian political process.