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The Prospect of UN Multinational Troop Deployment in Gaza

posted on: Jul 9, 2025

The Allee des Nations with the Flags of Member Countries at UN Office, Geneva, Switzerland. Photo Credit: Pexels

By Jake Harris / Arab America Contributing Writer

Dire Humanitarian Situation

The humanitarian situation in Gaza is desperate. The United Nations estimates that 92 percent of buildings and structures in Gaza are either damaged or destroyed. Apart from the vast destruction of residential areas, crucial infrastructure such as hospitals have been decimated by Israeli air strikes. A WHO report on the dire medical situation in the Gaza Strip reported that 2,000 hospital beds remain to cover a population of approximately 2 million people. Gaza’s only specialist hospital for Cancer patients was closed and fully demolished because of a lack of fuel, medical supplies and consistent airstrikes. The Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital had already ceased operations in late 2023 due to the same shortages. 

The World Food Programme, another humanitarian group underneath the UN banner, reported that Gaza is at serious risk for famine. The entire population is under acute food insecurity. Action must be quick to prevent more mass death.

UN Emergency Forces

The United Nations deployed a UN peacekeeping force back in 1956 during the Suez Crisis to facilitate an end to hostilities on the border of Israel and Egypt. Such a force would have vastly different objectives if deployed to Gaza today. Securing a ceasefire is done at the negotiating table. Protecting civilians from displacement, gathering evidence of possible war crimes, and making sure the flow of aid is safe and efficient can only be done on the ground. 

These are the justifications laid out in a petition started by the American Educational Trust. The petition currently has over 3,500 signatures and will be sent to the UN General Assembly. The petition reiterates that the mission to send in this emergency force is not only about the work they will do on the ground. It will reaffirm the world’s faith in international law as an institution. Something that is applied equally not selectively.

Ways to Make the UN more Democratic

Statements of condemnation from general assembly members show solidarity. They do not deter further attacks and breaches of international law. In order for international law to be taken seriously as an institution, there needs to be improvements to the supranational institutions that create the guidelines. 

The first is equal vote for every country. Members of the UN security council which consists  partially of the former allied powers in World War II have veto power over UN resolutions. 14 of the 15 security council members voted for a draft resolution for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. The one country that voted against was the United States. The resolution was torpedoed by 1 vote out of 15. If the UN is supposed to be an institution that is democratic in nature, it makes little sense to allow such disproportionality. 

Uniting For Peace Resolution

One might be wondering, what does this have to do with a resolution to send an Emergency Force in? Any such resolution would usually require the approval of the United States. This is regardless of how overwhelming the vote is to approve. If Israel sees UN peacekeepers as a violation of their sovereignty, they are likely to lobby Washington to veto. The petition offers a way around the almost certain veto that is to come. It is called the Uniting for Peace Resolution. UN Resolution 377 outlines that if there is a “lack of unanimity” among the permanent members that inhibits the body’s ability to maintain international peace and security, the general assembly can take appropriate measures such as sending in a peacekeeping force. In order to trigger this emergency session, one security council member must vote for the request or a majority of the general assembly.

The argument that the situation in Gaza is dire enough to meet this threshold is strong. The United Nations exists as a correction to the failures of the League of Nations. The failures of the League of Nations was primarily its failure to enforce its guidelines. International aggressors did not fear the consequences of the body. This is not advocating for the UN to be a World Government. The UN must strike a balance between becoming too invasive of regional sovereignty, and becoming completely ineffective in enforcing its mission.

Link To Petition

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