During a speech last night at a celebration in Gaza City last night, Ismael Haniyeh, the Prime Minister of the defunct Hamas-led Palestinian government, made his position clear on the proposed idea of an Arab peacekeeping force being sent to the Gaza Strip. In a display of sarcasm, Haniyeh stated that there's no need for an Arab peacekeeping force in Gaza, but “if it was the case that this force wanted to come and liberate the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the rest of Palestine, then they’re welcome to do so.”
Haniyeh, went on to call for Arab support for the people of Gaza, reiterating his demand for the Arab countries to work towards having the crossings opened and the embargo lifted.
The idea of an Arab peacekeeping force was recently brought up by Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gieth. It then caught the attention of the Israelis before the Palestinian foreign minister of the Fatah-led government announced that he would be discussing the matter in more detail with Arab foreign ministers next week in Cairo.
Peacekeeping sounds nice, but what kind of mandate would this force have? Would it be allowed to intervene against weapons smuggling? How would it go about coordinating/cooperating with the Palestinian Authority and the IDF?
These are the kind of questions one would hope the Arab foreign ministers consider in their meeting next week. Perhaps a few things can be gleaned from UNIFIL's experience in south Lebanon these past few years.
While Haniyeh may not be impressed with the idea, some sort of third-party force would be a key component of a transition towards peace in Gaza. With everybody else seemingly onboard, and with the strain of the embargo further squeezing their constituents more day by day, it is perhaps only a matter of time before Hamas accepts this reality.
