Jordan’s King Abdullah II has warned that countries will be unwilling to take part in any Gaza mission that requires them to “enforce” peace under a ceasefire proposal backed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Speaking in an interview with BBC Panorama, the King said the nature of the deployment would be crucial to determining whether Arab states and international partners agree to participate.
Under the 20-point plan, stabilisation forces from Arab and allied nations would support and train Palestinian police in Gaza, while Hamas would be required to disarm and relinquish political authority.
“What is the mandate of security forces inside Gaza? And we hope that it is peacekeeping, because if it’s peace enforcing, nobody will want to touch that,” King Abdullah said.
He noted that Jordan and Egypt are willing to help train Palestinian security forces but will not assume any combat or policing role on the ground.
“Peacekeeping is supporting the local police force, the Palestinians, which Jordan and Egypt can train in large numbers — but that takes time,” he said. “If we’re running around Gaza on patrol with weapons, that’s not a situation that any country would like to get involved in.”
The King stressed that Jordan would not deploy troops into Gaza, citing its close political and demographic ties to the Palestinian issue. More than half of Jordan’s population is of Palestinian descent, and the country hosts around 2.3 million Palestinian refugees, the largest number in the region.
