The United States has announced the deployment of approximately 200 soldiers to the occupied territories to monitor the implementation of a ceasefire aimed at ending Israel’s two-year genocidal war in Gaza. The troops, already stationed at the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) in the Middle East, will work alongside Egyptian, Qatari, Turkish, and Emirati forces to supervise adherence to the truce and coordinate humanitarian operations. A civil-military coordination centre is being established to facilitate aid delivery and logistical support to the besieged Gaza Strip, though U.S. forces will not be entering Gaza itself.

Under the first phase of the ceasefire, Hamas is set to release around 20 Israeli prisoners still alive and hand over the bodies of those killed in Israeli operations, in exchange for the release of roughly 2,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. The agreement also calls for Israeli forces to withdraw to a pre-agreed line, leaving them in control of 53% of Gaza’s territory, while allowing humanitarian access to the two million residents, many of whom remain displaced after extensive destruction.

The ceasefire, approved by Israel’s cabinet, is expected to take effect within 24 hours, with prisoner exchanges occurring over the following 72 hours. Despite these measures, the memory of the past two years of devastation, during which over 67,000 Palestinians were killed, most of them women and children, and nearly 170,000 injured, casts a shadow over the fragile calm, leaving many Gazans anxious about the truce’s durability and the ongoing presence of Israeli forces near their homes.