EU wants to train 3,000 police officers for Gaza police

Middle East conflict

EU wants to train 3,000 police officers for Gaza police

Training for thousands of police officers and more deployment of border protection: The EU does not just want to support the US peace plan for Gaza with aid money. The German Foreign Minister also comments.

The EU is planning to significantly expand its border protection and police mission in the conflict region in support of the US peace plan for the Gaza Strip. As EU chief diplomat Kaja Kallas announced at a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels, around 3,000 Palestinian security forces will initially be trained.

In the long term, we even plan to train all 13,000 employees who are expected to be required. According to information from the German Press Agency, this emerges from an internal EU working paper. There is also talk of a leading role for the European Union in police training.

In the short term, according to the plans, Eupol Copps will support the reconstruction of justice and security structures in the Gaza Strip and organize training programs for Palestinian police trainers at a police academy in Jericho financed by Germany, among others. The other steps could follow an expansion of the mandate for the mission. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot promised to provide around 100 gendarmerie forces for operations in the Palestinian territories.

Federal Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (CDU) initially did not give any figures, but made it clear that Germany was also prepared to provide practical support. Most recently, the Federal Republic only provides three experts for Eupol Copps.

The civilian police in Gaza have previously worked under the control of the terrorist organization Hamas. According to a recently passed resolution by the UN Security Council, the new police force should work closely with an international stabilization force that is also planned.

Brussels is also planning to expand the EU border protection operation in the Gaza Strip. According to the dpa information, support could also be provided in the clearance of goods traffic in the future, not only at the Rafah crossing, but also at checkpoints such as Kerem Shalom. As a first step, it is planned that the border protection mission will again support people crossing the border into and out of Gaza after the planned reopening of the Rafah crossing.

In the past, France in particular campaigned for the expansion of mandates. Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot recently said at an EU meeting in Luxembourg that it was important to ensure that large quantities of humanitarian aid reached Gaza safely. An expansion of the Eupol Copps police mission could also support the planned process of disarming the terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The EU Border Support Mission in Rafah (Eubam Rafah) was set up back in 2005 to help control the only border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. However, after the Islamist Hamas came to power in the Gaza Strip in 2007, there were no EU personnel at the border crossing for a very long time because the EU did not want to cooperate with Hamas.