There is an attitude in Israel that Security Council Resolution 2803 is a “dead letter,” because the International Stabilization Force (ISF) it intends to establish will never actually be deployed.
They may be right, but the motives and interests of the actors involved in this affair are so complex and unpredictable that it would be a mistake to ignore the document.
Let’s go through excerpts from Chapter 7 of Resolution 2803:
7. Authorizes the member states, working with the BoP and the BoP itself, to establish an interim International Stabilization Force (ISF) in Gaza, which will operate under a unified command acceptable to the BoP, to which participating states will send their forces… to employ all necessary means to fulfill the mandate… to assist in securing the border areas… to protect civilians… and to provide assistance to the competent Palestinian police forces…
…and when the ISF establishes control and stability, the IDF will withdraw from the Gaza Strip on the basis of standards, milestones and timetables related to demobilization, to be determined by agreement between the IDF, the ISF, the guarantor states and the United States…
So:
1. There is an international force on Israel’s border, whose role is to be responsible for “assisting in securing” the border using “all necessary means” - but without specifying who or what threatens the border, and from what it must be secured.
2. The same international force is also required to “protect civilians” using “all necessary means” - again, without specifying from who to protect.
3. The IDF withdrawal is conditional on “standards, milestones and timetables related to demilitarization,” without specifying which entity determines whether these conditions have been met.
Let’s put away the rose-colored glasses for a moment and imagine the following quite possible world:
1. Tucker Carlson, who actually enjoyed the support of President Trump last Sunday, manages to poison the minds of Trump supporters.
2. The declarations of “successes” in Gaza are considered more important to the White House than the reality itself.
3. Ultimately, the White House is staffed by an enemy of Israel.
And now:
1. In accordance with the Hamas model, there are human shields in the Gaza Strip protecting enemy forces, whose existence the “peace-loving” Palestinian government denies or presents as negligible remnants of an opposition, with its credibility dependent on its ability to show the public “progress” in the form of IDF withdrawals.
2. As part of “securing the border area,” the international force prevents Israel from any aerial monitoring of the Gaza Strip, as well as any infiltration of Israeli forces for operations against life-threatening terrorist targets inside the Strip.
3. Even in the extreme case of missiles being launched at Israel, the presence of a single civilian near the facility from which the launch was carried out places the area under the “protection” of the international force.
Conclusion:
While our commentators have focused on the question of how the wording of Resolution 2803 relates to a future Palestinian Arab state (in an unnacceptable phrase that mentions the "pathway" to one), there are flaws at the heart of the document that could cost us dearly in the near future.
Resolution 2803 (2025) Adopted by the Security Council at its 10046th meeting, on 17 November 2025:
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/full-text-us-resolution-gaza-approved-un-security-council
Dr. Aaron Lerner heads IMRA.(Independent Media Review Analysis)