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A small contingent of Kosovar soldiers has arrived in Israel, joining an emerging multinational force intended to help manage postwar Gaza, though the deployment remains far from operational as legal and political obstacles continue to delay the mission.
The arrival was announced by the Board of Peace, the United States-led body overseeing postwar governance arrangements for Gaza. The Kosovar troops join Moroccan soldiers who arrived last month, marking another incremental step in efforts to assemble what officials are calling an International Stabilization Force, or ISF.
Albania and Kazakhstan are also expected to contribute troops to the force, but Israel has not yet completed the legal and political steps required to permit foreign soldiers to enter Gaza, leaving those deployments in limbo.
The Board of Peace is currently developing a logistics hub in southern Israel to serve as the force's staging ground. No construction has begun on a permanent base inside Gaza itself, and officials have offered no timeline for when the ISF might actually cross into the territory.
International stabilization forces, typically deployed in post-conflict zones to provide security while civilian institutions are rebuilt, have been used in various forms in the Balkans, Afghanistan and elsewhere, though their effectiveness has varied widely depending on the political conditions on the ground.
Kosovo's own experience is notable in this context. The territory declared independence in 2008 following a NATO-led intervention in the late 1990s and has since built a small but internationally integrated military that has contributed to peacekeeping missions abroad.
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