Despite the new civil-military command centre for managing the post-war Strip being run by the US, the troops operating on the ground will mainly come from regional countries in order to reduce tension.

More than three weeks after the Donald Trump-brokered ceasefire took effect, the promised international stabilisation force has yet to take shape.

Potential contributing nationals are reported to be wrangling over not just the composition of the force, but its precise role – actively disarming Hamas or merely policing a post-Hamas Gaza – and its formal legal basis.

Earlier this week, King Abdullah of Jordan, one of the Arab and Muslim countries expected to play a role in the future of Gaza, said he did not believe international troops would forcibly disarm Hamas.

He said the international stabilisation force’s mandate should be “peacekeeping” not “peace enforcing”, saying “nobody will want to touch that”.

Israel has strongly opposed suggestions of Turkish or Qatari troops playing a role on the ground, on the basis of both countries’ sympathies for the Muslim Brotherhood principles on which Hamas was founded.

There is increasing speculation that Indonesian troops will play a role. Egypt and the United Arab Emirates are also expected to contribute.

Ynet reported sources as saying that no Western or non-Muslim troops would be deployed.

Earlier this month, Britain deployed troops to Israel as part of the international task force led by the United States to monitor the ceasefire in Gaza.

On the request of the US, a small contingent of military planning officers has been embedded in the stabilisation force, known as the civil-military coordination centre, the Ministry of Defence said.

The US is providing up to 200 troops but Britain has not revealed how many of its forces will be deployed, although the cadre will include a two-star deputy commander.

It came as Hamas released the remains of two more deceased hostages late on, marginally easing the anger in Israel about the slow return of the remains.

Amiram Cooper, 84, and Sahar Baruch, 25, were confirmed to have returned to Israel by authorities on Tuesday.

Mr Cooper, an economist and poet, was the founder of Kibbutz Nir Oz, from which he was abducted on Oct 7.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said he was murdered in captivity in February 2024.

Mr Baruch, an engineering student, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri during the massacre. He was later killed during a failed IDF rescue mission in December 2023.

Last week, Hamas appeared to try to pass off the delivery of the partial remains of an Israeli who had been killed and handed back in 2023 as one of the 28 missing hostages which form part of the Trump deal.

Drone footage appeared to show terrorists temporarily burying the remains and then staging a fake discovery.

Credit: IDF

The anger in Israel played a part in the airstrikes that rocked the enclave on Tuesday, although these were mainly provoked by the fatal attack on an IDF soldier within the Israel-controlled zone of Gaza earlier in the day.

The bloodshed emphasised the stalemate in the enclave, with Hamas back in control of most urban areas.

The peace plan envisages Hamas being disarmed and Israel then withdrawing further from its current positions.

However, Hamas has never explicitly agreed to give up its weapons and shows every sign of trying to entrench its control of the Strip and regrouping as a fighting force.

Although they are publicly committed to the White House agenda, Israeli security chiefs believe that ultimately they will need to disarm Hamas by military force.

On Friday, Israel’s top military lawyer, Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, quit after admitting leaking a surveillance video from an Israeli detention facility which appeared to show soldiers abusing a Palestinian detainee last year.

A confidential report from the US State Department concluded that Israeli forces carried out “many hundreds” of possible human rights violations Gaza, according to the Washington Post on Thursday.

Citing two American officials, the publication said the report found that examining the possible breaches would take “multiple years”.

The report by the State Department’s office of the inspector general, an independent body within the State Department, would mark the first time a US administration has acknowledged that Israel’s actions in Gaza fall under the scope of the Leahy Laws.

The laws prohibit the government from assisting a foreign military “if the Secretary of State has credible information that such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights.”