Israel Weighs Removing British Officials From the American-Led Gaza Ceasefire Headquarters

Israel is considering expelling British officials, and potentially personnel from other European states, from the American-led coordination centre set up to manage the Gaza ceasefire, the Financial Times reported. The proposal follows a rise in European criticism of the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The centre is the institutional mechanism through which the ceasefire is monitored and through which reconstruction planning is meant to run.

At the same time, Al Jazeera reports that Israeli artillery attacks, air raids and ground incursions are continuing in Syria and Lebanon despite an American push for diplomacy. Questions are growing among regional governments about how firmly Washington is committed to stopping them. Israel has consistently described its operations in both countries as necessary to prevent armed groups from rebuilding capability near its borders.

Iran is positioning around the same set of conflicts. The deputy coordinator of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps told an audience in Birjand that national unity and popular resilience are what defeat Iran's adversaries, and described Iranian personnel killed across the region as having acted to protect national security and interests, according to the Iranian state agency IRNA.

Removing European participants from the ceasefire mechanism would narrow it to a bilateral American and Israeli arrangement. European states are among the largest expected contributors to Gaza reconstruction financing, and donors rarely commit capital to a structure from which they have been excluded.