Israel Said Blocking US Firm From Building Gaza Base for International Peacekeeping Force

Israel has not authorized a US company to begin construction on a planned Gaza military base meant to house international peacekeeping troops under the Board of Peace initiative, The Times of Israel reported, citing a report in The Guardian. Two months after the firm won the tender to build an outpost for 150 international soldiers, contractors and trucks still have not been allowed into Gaza to start the work.

"Without the deployment of the International Stabilization Force in Gaza, you can't rebuild," one source involved in the project said, underscoring how the holdup over a single construction site is, in effect, holding up the broader international stabilization effort the base is meant to support. Backers of the Board of Peace initiative expect Israel to approve the project only after the October 27 Knesset election.

The delay comes as Israel separately reported that private merchants in Gaza had suspended coordination of commercial goods, citing alleged Hamas intimidation and taxation, a version of events disputed by a Gaza trucking union official who said the suspension was actually Israel's decision. Humanitarian organizations have warned that the standoff threatens supply chains Gaza's markets depend on to keep prices affordable alongside aid shipments.

Separately, a Palestinian polling survey cited in the same report found Hamas's support declining to 19 percent overall and 27 percent within Gaza specifically, a data point that Board of Peace officials have pointed to as evidence that the stabilization effort, once it can actually get underway, has a real political opening to work with.