Peace Council for Gaza Publishes First Construction Contract
According to the British "Guardian", the Council published a contract for the construction of a military post in Gaza that will house 150 people, where soldiers from Morocco will stay. The Moroccan unit will rotate from a base in Israel to the post, which will be built about 1.6 km from the border and will include a "rapid extraction route" for emergencies.
The Peace Council for the Gaza Strip has published a first construction contract for a project to build a military post that will house 150 people, for soldiers arriving from Morocco. This was stated to the British "Guardian" by a source familiar with the details.
The contract, which at this stage has not yet been finally approved, was awarded to the company Arkel International, which has previously performed work for the US government in countries such as Iraq. According to the report, an official in the Council wrote in an email that the Council and a team of Palestinian technocrats overseeing Gaza "are in the final stages of preparing several contract awards. None of them have been finalized." The Palestinian group is known as the "National Committee for the Management of Gaza."
The official added that "one expected contract concerns services that will support the International Stabilization Force (ISF), which will assist in implementing the security and governance arrangements of the plan." According to him, "this contract will be one of many essential for the future of Gaza."
The planned post will be only 100 by 120 meters in size and is intended to house a unit of Moroccan soldiers who will rotate from a base in Israel, noted the source who spoke with the "Guardian." According to him, the post will be built in the Strip in an area under Israeli control, about 1.6 km from it, and will have a "rapid extraction route" in case the small force is attacked.
The UN resolution that authorized the Council approved the establishment of an "International Stabilization Force" for Gaza. Morocco promised a small unit, but the legal framework of the ISF has not yet been finalized and it is unclear when the deployment of the force will begin.
The "Guardian" added that it had seen in previous contract plans for Gaza that the base in question was the first stage of a plan to establish another military base, which would house 5,000 people, for the ISF. The base, according to the report, had "vehicle fighting positions" and a perimeter berm — or an elevated defensive berm — as well as basic facilities suitable for short-term deployments. The early contract stipulated that the first stage would consist of "tents and cots for the forces to sleep in, as well as chemical toilets and hand-washing stations." It was further written: "At this stage, this is what we consider suitable for living."
