Italy Unveils Gaza Reconstruction Plan: Demining and Training Palestinian Forces
Italy Unveils Gaza Reconstruction Plan: Demining and Training Palestinian Forces
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Amid ongoing discussions regarding the future of Gaza and new peace proposals, Italy has announced a new initiative to deploy engineering and training personnel for demining operations and the instruction of Palestinian security forces. This plan, aimed at stabilizing the Gaza Strip, has been met with limited acceptance and significant security concerns.
The Italian Prime Minister has presented a plan for the country’s involvement in the reconstruction and stabilization of Gaza. According to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, the Italian government intends to dispatch specialized military engineer units to de-mine the conflict-affected areas of Gaza. This effort is part of a broader initiative designed to assist with infrastructure reconstruction and support regional stability following recent conflicts.
La Repubblica also reported that the Italian cabinet is considering deploying approximately 200 Carabinieri special forces to train Palestinian security personnel. The Carabinieri is Italy’s national gendarmerie—a military police force operating under the Ministry of Defence—with responsibilities that include internal security, counter-terrorism, and training foreign security forces.
Initial plans for this training to take place in Jericho in the West Bank are considered unlikely due to the area’s unstable security conditions and control by the Israeli military. As an alternative, the Italian government has proposed conducting the training at the established center in Vicenza, Italy, which has extensive experience in training foreign forces.
Italian officials have not ruled out the possibility of Carabinieri deployment inside the Gaza Strip itself, but have conditioned this on the prior establishment of a peacekeeping force comprised of Arab or Islamic nations.
