Gaza Strip: Palestine Rejects Deployment of Foreign Troops

Recently, the secretary of the PLO executive committee, Hussein Al-Sheikh, criticized on the social network X the dispatch of soldiers from various countries to the territory, especially around the Rafah crossing, bordering Egypt.

On Monday, Palestinian officials again condemned any foreign presence in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank, amid press reports of Israeli plans to hand over the coastal enclave to foreign troops.

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“There is no legitimacy for any foreign presence over the Palestinian territories,” presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina warned in a statement.

Our people are the only ones authorized to decide who governs them and manages their affairs, he said.

Abu Rudeina also denounced the illegality of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the policy of forced displacement promoted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s executive.

“Israel is deluded if it believes that its actions are capable of deciding our fate and perpetuating the occupation by deploying foreign forces in the Gaza Strip,” he stressed.

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A young girl is killed by the occupation army in the West Bank . The grief of her parents remains a pain in the heart, sadness over loss and oppression from disappointment.#IsraeliNewNazism#شمال_غزة_يموت_جوعاً#رفح_تستغيث@Gaza7o pic.twitter.com/jgFKWWlBOt

— Heba Breaka (@HebaBreaka) July 1, 2024

The official recalled that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

Recently, the secretary of the PLO executive committee, Hussein Al-Sheikh, criticized on the social network X the dispatch of soldiers from various countries to the territory, especially around the Rafah crossing, bordering Egypt.

Also the monitoring committee of the National and Islamic Forces, which groups together Palestinian factions, announced its opposition to Netanyahu’s plans. In a statement, the committee warned against attempts to hand over control and management of the crossing, which connects Gaza and Egypt, to a U.S. security company.

Regardless of the veracity of these reports, we will not accept any form of imposed guardianship over the crossing or any other part of the coastal enclave, it said.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a leftist formation, made a similar statement.

Any foreign group that takes over the management of that facility will be considered an occupying force and therefore a legitimate target, he warned.

The Israeli daily Haaretz revealed last May that the Netanyahu government intends to transfer responsibility for the management of the Rafah crossing to a private U.S. company once the military campaign is over.

It indicated that the members of the firm are former soldiers of U.S. Army special units, trained to protect strategic sites in conflict zones in Africa.