US Press
Kosovo signs up to join the international force for Gaza
Graphic: Times of Palestine
Original Reporting
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Kosovo signed a Participating Country Agreement on 7 September to join the International Stabilization Force (ISF) being assembled for postwar Gaza under President Trump's peace plan, the Board of Peace announced, in a ceremony in Pristina covered by the hawkish Washington think tank FDD's Long War Journal.
What was signed, and by whom#
Kosovo's defense minister, Ejup Maqedonci, and the Kosovo Security Force commander, Lt. Gen. Bashkim Jashari, signed alongside Major General Jasper Jeffers, the ISF's commanding officer, FDD reported.
The Board of Peace, the body the US and UN backed to oversee Gaza's transition, said Kosovo "will provide critical support" for the plan, building on a role its forces have played since spring 2026 in logistics, civil affairs and unexploded-ordnance clearing, according to the board's own statement carried by FDD.
A day later, Jeffers met Albania's foreign and defense ministers to discuss Tirana's own contribution, the Board of Peace said — part of a wider push to recruit small and mid-sized states to the force.
“the US is not at all credible as a peacekeeper”
The contested read#
FDD's coverage treats Kosovo's signing as a milestone for the peace plan's implementation and did not raise questions about the Board of Peace's legal footing.
Middle East Eye, reporting on Kosovo's decision separately, cited eight UN experts who have called the Board of Peace an "illegal and illegitimate manoeuvre by powerful states" that violates Palestinians' right to self-determination.
It also quoted legal experts rejecting Kosovo's own comparison of its Gaza role to the 1999 international intervention that helped secure its independence — arguing that intervention answered genocide, while "the US is not at all credible as a peacekeeper" in Gaza given its support for Israel.
