Morocco signed an agreement in Rabat on Wednesday committing 400 troops to the international force tasked with stabilizing Gaza during its postwar transition.
The commitment puts a concrete number on what has so far been described only in general terms, and it lands awkwardly at home. Morocco normalized relations with Israel in 2020 under the Abraham Accords, and that normalization has drawn repeated street protests in Rabat since the Gaza war began, which makes this deployment a domestic balancing act as much as a foreign policy statement.
Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita and Defence Minister Delegate Abdeltif Loudyi signed the agreement on behalf of Morocco, receiving Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative of the Gaza Peace Council, and the commander of the International Stabilization Force (ISF). Officials said Morocco is the first country to formalize an agreement of this kind with the Peace Council, building on commitments it made at the council’s founding meeting in Washington in February.
Under the deal, Morocco will send senior Royal Armed Forces officers into the ISF joint command, where they are expected to help monitor the ceasefire, secure aid corridors and support border security. Personnel from the Royal Gendarmerie and the General Directorate of National Security will help train a new Palestinian police force meant to gradually take over public order duties. Morocco also plans to build a military field hospital to serve both the international force and the Gazan population, and to fund programmes aimed at countering extremism and building tolerance.
Bourita described the agreement as consistent with Morocco’s long standing position on the conflict. “The Royal Vision has always been consistent,” he said, reaffirming Morocco’s support for a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, alongside Israel.
The ISF operates under a mandate set out in United Nations Security Council Resolution 2803, adopted in November after months of negotiation over whether the force would need a UN mandate at all. Officials describe its role as protecting civilians, enabling the return of displaced residents and creating conditions for reconstruction, not acting as an occupying force or taking sides.
Morocco has backed its position with aid as well as diplomacy. The kingdom says it has delivered close to 280 tonnes of humanitarian and medical aid to Gaza since the war began, including a shipment moved by an overland route negotiated with the parties involved, and its Bayt Mal Al Quds Agency has channeled more than 2.2 million dollars toward social, health and heritage projects benefiting Palestinians, particularly in East Jerusalem. Officials say Morocco was also the first country to pay into the Peace Council’s budget.
Reconstruction needs in Gaza remain enormous, with hospitals, schools, water networks and housing severely damaged and rebuilding costs estimated in the tens of billions of dollars. Moroccan officials say the ISF role is meant to support that recovery rather than substitute for a broader political settlement, which they maintain still depends on an eventual two state solution.
