US private security firms to manage key checkpoint in Gaza

In the coming days, U.S. private security contractors will begin management of a key Gaza checkpoint and deploy armed guards to devastated Palestinian enclave, two Israeli officials and a source with direct knowledge told American news outlet Axios.

According to Axios, this move marks the first time in decades that American private security firms operate in the Strip, besieged and bombed relentlessly by Israel, with substantial American military and financial support, for more than 15 months of war before a truce with Hamas took effect on Jan. 19.

The American contractors are expected to operate in Gaza until the end of the first phase of the agreement, which is set to last 42 days, whether it be following an understanding on the second phase of the agreement, which calls for a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, or following a breakdown in negotiations and a resumption of fighting.

The role of these security firms will be to inspect Palestinian vehicles that move from southern Gaza to northern Gaza and to ensure no rockets or other heavy weapons are being transferred past the checkpoint and the companies will operate as part of a multinational consortium created under the agreement, with the support of its intermediaries: the United States, Egypt, and Qatar.

In 2003, three American administrative security agents were killed in an attack on an American convoy in Gaza. Israeli authorities at the time stated that Hamas was responsible for the attack, and since then, any American or U.S. government-supported activity in Gaza has been significantly limited, ostensibly for security reasons.