The EU plan to train 3,000 Gaza police officers is emerging as one of the bloc’s most concrete contributions to the international effort to stabilise the territory after the latest UN Security Council resolution backing a US-brokered plan for Gaza.
A police force at the centre of Gaza’s stabilisation plan
According to an unnamed EU official quoted by several media outlets, the European Union wants to train up to 3,000 Palestinian police officers linked to the Palestinian Authority (PA), under a programme similar to the one the bloc already runs in the occupied West Bank. The official argued that there will be a “need to stabilise Gaza with an important police force” if the current ceasefire endures.
The proposal is being framed as part of the implementation of the UN Security Council resolution that endorses the latest Gaza plan backed by the Trump administration and its vision for an international stabilisation force. Under that plan, newly trained Palestinian police officers would work alongside the international force, as well as with Israel and Egypt, to help secure Gaza’s borders and support the demilitarisation of the territory.
Crucially, EU officials stress that the officers to be trained would not be drawn from Hamas-controlled structures in Gaza. Instead, they would be selected among the roughly 7,000 police officers in Gaza who are still on the PA payroll, although many have retired or are currently unable to work. Around 3,000 of them are considered eligible for retraining.
Building on the EU police mission in the West Bank
The plan for EU police training for Gaza builds on nearly two decades of experience in the West Bank, where the EU Police and Rule of Law Mission, EUPOL COPPS, has supported the Palestinian Civil Police since 2006 under the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy.
EUPOL COPPS focuses on mentoring senior Palestinian police officers, improving investigative capacity, and strengthening cooperation between police, prosecutors and courts. The mission currently has around one hundred international and local staff and a yearly budget of roughly 13 million euro, funded by EU member states and a small group of partner countries.
For Brussels, the Gaza training proposal would extend this model to the coastal enclave, but under much more complex conditions. Unlike the West Bank, Gaza remains heavily damaged after years of conflict, with a fragile ceasefire, contested political authority, and the presence of armed groups that are not under PA control.
Training for the Gaza officers would take place outside the territory, most likely in neighbouring countries or in EU member states, before the police are deployed back to the strip. EU diplomats argue that external training would provide a more secure environment and make it easier to involve multiple member states and partners in the programme.
Political sensitivities around Gaza’s future security forces
The proposal to create a retrained Gaza police force sits at the intersection of several sensitive political issues. On the one hand, the UN resolution and the international stabilisation force it envisions seek to end Hamas’s control over security in Gaza and gradually transfer responsibilities to a reformed Palestinian Authority. On the other hand, both Hamas and the Israeli government have expressed strong reservations about key elements of the plan.
For the PA, taking over policing responsibilities in Gaza could strengthen its claim to represent all Palestinians, but it also comes with risks. Any security force seen as too dependent on foreign sponsors or too closely aligned with Israeli demands might face a legitimacy problem among Gaza’s population. Human rights organisations have already warned that international support for Palestinian security forces must be accompanied by clear safeguards against abuses and political repression.
Within the EU, the initiative is also likely to expose internal divisions that have been visible throughout the war in Gaza, between member states seen as more aligned with Israel and others that emphasise Palestinian rights and statehood. Some governments will insist that police training must be linked to a broader political roadmap towards a two-state solution, not just to short-term stabilisation.
