US seeks UN authorization to deploy international force in Gaza until 2027

The United States took its Gaza plan to the U.N. Security Council and is now pushing for formal U.N. authorization of a large, multi-year international force that would govern security in the Strip until at least 2027.

The move the administration sees as necessary to implement President Donald Trump’s Plan 20, which represents one of the most significant decisions Washington has made in years, aimed at placing the United Nations at the center of a major Middle East security framework.

In a statement, the US mission to the UN said the draft was drafted with input from Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. The mission said the goal is “to bring to fruition President Trump’s historic 20-point comprehensive plan,” which was supported by more than 20 countries at a summit in Sharm el-Sheikh on October 13.

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U.S. President Donald Trump poses with the agreement signed at a summit of world leaders on ending the war in Gaza, as part of a U.S.-brokered prisoner and hostage exchange and ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025. (Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters)

Negotiations with Security Council members began in the first week of November to “establish the International Stabilization Force and begin a stable, secure, peaceful and prosperous future for the Palestinians in Gaza, without Hamas.” The Mission added that the ceasefire remains “fragile” and that delays “have serious, tangible and entirely avoidable consequences for Palestinians in Gaza.”

New details reported by Axios reveal the scope of the American proposal. Under a plan described as “sensitive but unclassified,” the resolution would establish an International Security Force in Gaza for at least two years, with a mandate extending until the end of 2027 and the possibility of extensions. A U.S. official told Axios that the plan was to pass the resolution within a few weeks and deploy the first troops by January, describing the force as “a law enforcement force, not a peacekeeping force.”

World leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, pose for a family photo, during a summit of world leaders on ending the war in Gaza, part of a U.S.-brokered prisoner and hostage exchange and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025. (Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters Pool)

The US military will oversee the next phase of the peace agreement from its coordination base in Israel

Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Fox News Digital that the United States went to the U.N. because several states Washington hoped would contribute troops required a mandate from the Security Council.

“The decision to go to the United Nations was driven primarily by the request of the participating states, states that the United States hopes will participate in the stabilization force and that need a UN mandate to assist them politically, to send forces eventually to Gaza. So that’s the real origin of this, to enable, to give a political framework for the participating states to play a role in the stabilization force.”

U.S. President Donald Trump delivers a speech to the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York, September 23, 2025. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)

Satloff said that while Israel has expressed real concerns about U.N. involvement, he understands why Washington believes the mandate is essential. “There’s no question that U.N. involvement brings its own complications, and I think the Israelis have been quite vocal about that. But they also appreciate that the United States feels it needs this type of approval for the 20-point plan to move forward. The Israelis want to make sure those complications don’t negate the benefits of the plan. Which is a legitimate concern.”

He warned that the plan faced major challenges, but called not to be pessimistic. “There are huge obstacles to the implementation of the whole plan. The UN aspect is just one of them. We are already seeing fundamental disagreements, for example on the definition of disarmament, which could derail the whole effort. Now, I think we have to remain hopeful. The opportunity here is enormous. The desire to find solutions between the states that are committed to it is real and serious. So while it is entirely legitimate to recognize the obstacles important, I don’t think we should be negative about the prospects here.”

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Military vehicles gather near the Israel-Gaza border as part of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, southern Israel, October 12, 2025. (Ammar Awad/Reuters)

Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and president of Human Rights Voices, presented a radically different perspective. Bayefsky told Fox News Digital: “Incredibly, the United States has submitted its plans for Gaza to UN authorization and oversight. Arab countries said UN involvement was “necessary” to be able to participate in and support the international force in Gaza. self-defense, paralyzing America’s range of action through a network of agencies and involvement contrary to the interests and peace of the United States.

She said the move constituted “an about-face in U.S. foreign policy toward the United Nations and the Arab-Israeli conflict,” and argued that the United Nations “has repeatedly demonstrated its anti-Semitic bias, lack of good faith, and support for Palestinian aggression.” Bayefsky added that the draft “does not condemn Hamas” and “refuses to recognize and affirm Israel’s right to self-defense in the UN Charter before granting the UN unprecedented influence,” calling the omission “devastating to the prospects for real peace.”

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Palestinians move with their belongings as they flee their homes following Israeli airstrikes in the northern Gaza Strip, May 16, 2025. (Reuters/Mahmoud Issa)

Russia, however, responded with its own draft resolution, which takes a profoundly different tone. Moscow’s plan demands an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Gaza and the deployment of a UN peacekeeping mission under the authority of the Secretary-General and with the consent of the parties involved.

The draft also claims that it reaffirms the 1967 borders and East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state and insists that the reconstruction of Gaza must take place under Palestinian leadership and sovereignty, not through externally managed institutions. Unlike the US proposal, it contains no provision for demilitarization or interim foreign governance, but instead focuses on “humanitarian assistance and international law.”

Fox News Digital was referred by the White House and the State Department to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations for comment.