THE Gaza Strip’s Hamas resistance movement has ruled out the deployment of any foreign force to the Gaza Strip that would effectively serve as a substitute for the Israeli military.
‘We cannot accept a military force that would be a substitute for the occupation army in Gaza,’ Mousa Abu Marzouk, one of the movement’s senior leaders, said on Tuesday.
The comments came after the United States circulated a draft UN Security Council resolution mandating the establishment of a ‘temporary international force’ in the Gaza Strip for at least two years, amid Palestinians’ wariness of foreign interference in the coastal sliver.
According to American website Axios citing a copy of the draft, the ‘International Stabilisation Force (ISF)’ would be formed by the US, Turkey, Qatar, and Egypt, the countries that oversaw negotiations that led to realisation of a ceasefire deal between the Israeli regime and Hamas last month.
The deal seeks to implement the first phase of a 20-point plan by Donald Trump that the US president claims is aimed at ending the Israeli regime’s two-year-plus war of genocide on Gaza.
Marzouk said it would be difficult for the Security Council to pass the project to establish an international force in Gaza according to the American plan.
He noted that the idea that such a force is established through a Security Council mandate had been put forward during negotiations by mediators, including Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey.
‘Neither the United States nor Israel desired the international force to be established by a Security Council resolution,’ he noted.
According to the draft, the ISF would be ‘ensuring the process of demilitarising the Gaza Strip, including the destruction and prevention of rebuilding’ resistance infrastructure.
Critics note that despite its insistence on disempowering the resistance, the Trump proposal refuses to address such main issues as Israeli occupation, accountability, and Palestinian rights such as the right to compensation.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Marzouk addressed another part of the agreement, namely Hamas handing over Gaza’s administration to a Palestinian technocratic body.
‘We agreed that a minister affiliated with the Palestinian Authority should take over the administration of the Gaza Strip, prioritising the interest of our people.’
Marzouk, meanwhile, raised serious objection to the Israeli regime’s having violated the ceasefire deal ‘more than 190’ times since the implementation of the deal.
He, however, roundly rejected the notion that the regime had ‘won the war’ on Gaza despite the long drawn-out genocide.
The official was referring to the regime’s having failed to realise its main objectives of occupying the coastal sliver and forcing its population out.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Tuesday that any stabilisation force in Gaza must have ‘full international legitimacy’ to support Palestinians in Gaza.
Speaking at the Second World Summit for Social Development, Guterres said the truce achieved in the besieged and bombarded coastal enclave after ‘horrific suffering and famine’ remained delicate and needs international guarantees.
‘It is important the force that is created have full international legitimacy to deal with the parties and the population of Gaza.’
Despite criticism, Guterres said a mandate from the UN Security Council (UNSC) remains ‘the source of legitimacy’ for any stabilisation force, warning that without it, the risk of renewed conflict remains high.
The UN chief also praised the US for bringing Israel to accept the current ceasefire.
‘The government of Israel had other intentions … which were to conduct the war up to the end, but the Americans, at a certain moment, understood that enough was enough,’ he noted.
Nevertheless, he warned that the ceasefire remained delicate.
‘It was essential to stop the war and release hostages … but this is all very fragile,’ he said.
According to Gaza officials, Israel has violated the deal upwards of 190 times, killing hundreds of Palestinians in the last four weeks.
Moreover, Guterres warned that aid entering the Gaza Strip remains far below what is needed.
‘Humanitarian aid has improved … but we are far from what is necessary to eliminate famine quickly, and to create the conditions for the people in Gaza to have the very, very minimum that is necessary for dignity in life,’ he warned.
- Once lush with greenhouses and vegetables, the farmland of 60-year-old Naeem Abu Amra in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, now lies buried under rubble.
His eleven-dunum plot east of Abu Holi was once covered with tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, zucchini, and leafy greens, sustaining his family of eight and employing seasonal workers during harvest seasons.
Like thousands of farmers across the Gaza Strip, Abu Amra worked with limited means under Israel’s blockade, relying on drip-irrigation powered by solar panels and a small diesel pump.
His produce was sold in local markets, until everything vanished when Israel launched its genocide on Gaza in October 2023.
His once-productive land became a restricted military zone; the greenhouses were flattened, irrigation pipes torn apart, and his well filled with sand and debris.
‘Bulldozers levelled everything,’ Abu Amra told Middle East Eye in a report on Gaza’s agricultural collapse.
‘Even the metal and plastic frames melted under the bombing.’
Fields that once fed hundreds are now dead ground littered with unexploded ordnance. Yet Abu Amra refused to surrender.
With his sons, he cleared the ruins using shovels and donkeys, planting small patches of okra and molokhia watered by rain.
‘The destruction didn’t only wipe out our livelihood,’ he said, ‘it killed our sense of being. My children ask if they’ll ever see our greenhouses again. The war didn’t just steal our crops, it stole our future.’
According to a joint assessment by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the UN satellite centre UNOSAT, more than 95% of Gaza’s farmland is now inaccessible.
As of July 2024, 80% of agricultural land had been damaged, with 77.8% rendered completely unusable. Around 71% of greenhouses and 83% of agricultural wells were destroyed.
The FAO warned that the destruction signals the collapse of Gaza’s entire food and agricultural system, the arteries of life for the besieged enclave.
Before the genocide, agriculture made up 11% of Gaza’s GDP and provided livelihoods for roughly 560,000 people.
Today, its share has plummeted to less than 2%, according to Baha Zaqout, external relations director at the Palestinian Agricultural Development Association (PARC).
‘The agricultural sector has been almost entirely destroyed,’ said Zaqout. ‘This wasn’t random, it was systematic.
‘Israel has long weaponised the food system, restricting access to fertilisers, tools, and seeds. But since last October, it has adopted a policy of total eradication.’
The World Bank estimates that rehabilitating Gaza’s agricultural sector will cost $8.4 billion.
Around 61 million tons of rubble cover the Strip, with about 15% believed to contain toxic materials such as asbestos, threatening groundwater and soil.
Zaqout noted that essential equipment for clearing debris remains barred from entry, even as Israeli authorities allowed Egyptian teams to enter Gaza last month solely to retrieve the remains of Israeli captives.
‘We can’t rebuild wells or test soil and water quality under siege,’ he added.
Mariam Al-Jaajaa, director general of the Arab Group for the Protection of Nature (APN), said, ‘Not even a tomato seed has been allowed into Gaza. Seeds are a weapon now, because they’re a source of life.’
She explained that Israel classifies seeds as ‘dual-use items’, banning their entry since the blockade began in 2007, along with basic foodstuffs like pasta and olives.
Despite the restrictions, APN partnered with more than 700 farmers to cultivate around 1,300 dunums, producing seven million kilograms of vegetables from remaining local seeds. But costs have soared, from $5,000 to $25,000 per dunum, due to the blockade and scarcity of resources.
‘Agriculture is not just an economy,’ she said. ‘It’s a shield against land confiscation.
‘When you plant it, you protect it. Neglecting agriculture means conceding sovereignty over food and land.
‘If only 2% of Gaza’s arable land remains accessible, that’s about 2,300 dunums waiting to be revived.
‘The world should help plant them instead of merely documenting the devastation.
‘But many international agencies lack the political independence to implement sustainable projects here,’ she added.
Before the genocide, Israeli restrictions had already forced farmers to focus on export-controlled crops such as strawberries and flowers.
About 30% of Gaza’s farmland was confiscated for what Israel calls a ‘security buffer zone’, while fishermen were barred from sailing beyond limited distances, completing the cycle of economic strangulation.
‘The recovery of Gaza’s food system,’ Al-Jaajaa concluded, ‘must begin with restoring Palestinians’ control over their food and their land. There can be no sustainable solution without justice.’
