Kosovo has announced its intention to deploy troops to Gaza, joining a US-backed international security force established in the wake of last year’s ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
The initiative, known as the “Board of Peace” under US President Donald Trump, aims to maintain stability and support a transitional administration in the territory.
The decision was formally approved by Kosovo’s government on Monday, following an invitation from the United States received in December.
Prime Minister Albin Kurti addressed a televised ministerial meeting, stating: “We are ready to participate and help the people of Gaza, because we ourselves have been and are beneficiaries of international forces since 1999.”
Several other nations, including Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, and Albania, have also committed personnel to the International Stabilization Force.
However, the precise number of troops Kosovo plans to send to Gaza has not been disclosed by the government.
Violence in Gaza has persisted with the Israeli military killing over 680 Palestinians since the ceasefire with militant group Hamas began in November, local health officials say.
More than 72,000 have been killed since the war started in October 2023.
Trump’s Gaza plan, to which Israel and Hamas agreed in October, sees Israeli troops withdrawing from Gaza and reconstruction starting as Hamas lays down its weapons.
The October ceasefire left Israel in control of well over half of Gaza, with Hamas keeping a firm grip on the other half of the enclave and its two million people, most of whom are homeless after two years of relentless Israeli bombardment.
Hamas, committed to armed resistance and sworn to Israel’s destruction, has publicly rejected calls to disarm in recent months.
But in private, Hamas officials have voiced openness to disarmament so long as it is done along a political track that would see the establishment of a Palestinian state. The 12-point plan makes no mention of Palestinian statehood or independence.
Trump garnered some $7 billion in pledges in February from countries, including some in the Gulf, before those same countries came under attack by Iran in a widening Middle East war.
Kosovo, a Balkan country of 1.6 million people, is an ally of the US which backed its independence from Serbia in 2008.