Trump leaves Syria and enters Gaza

One of the US bases in Syria that the Americans are leaving
Photo: Getty Images

The U.S. is in the process of withdrawing all of its roughly 1,000 troops from Syria, according to three American officials, ending a decadelong military operation in the country, ‘The Wall Street Journal’ reports.

The U.S. military already completed its withdrawals from the Al Tanf garrison, a strategic outpost at the borders of Syria, Jordan and Iraq, and the Al-Shaddadi base in northeast Syria earlier this month, two of the officials said. Troops will withdraw from the remaining U.S. locations over the next two months, the officials said.

The officials said the withdrawal was unrelated to the current U.S. deployment of naval and air forces in the Middle East for potential strikes against Iran if talks about that country’s nuclear program fail. Iran has threatened to retaliate against American troops in the region if the U.S. launches airstrikes.

The Trump administration has decided that a U.S. military presence in Syria is no longer necessary, two U.S. officials said, because of the near-total disbandment of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the main U.S. partner in countering Islamic State in Syria for the past decade.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s forces took over most Kurdish-held territory in a lightning offensive last month. Damascus and the SDF reached a fragile U.S.-backed cease-fire in January, and the SDF has agreed to integrate into the Syrian army.

The Trump administration aims to build a larger diplomatic presence in Syria following the consolidation of power by Sharaa, who in late 2024 overthrew Bashar al-Assad.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio met last week with his Syrian counterpart, Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, largely to seek Damascus’s support in fighting terrorist groups such as Islamic State and maintaining a cease-fire with the SDF.

Another reason for the troop withdrawal is to reduce the risk of friction with Sharaa’s army, which is riddled with jihadist sympathizers, including soldiers with ties to al Qaeda and ISIS, and others who have been involved in alleged war crimes against the Kurdish and Druze minorities, the Journal previously reported.

In December, two U.S. soldiers and an American civilian interpreter were killed by a member of the Syrian security forces who was set to be fired for holding extremist views.

Trump’s plan to build 5,000-person military base in Gaza

Exclusive: approximately 350-acre compound planned as base for multinational force, according to records reviewed by ‘The Guardian’.

The Trump administration is planning to build a 5,000-person military base in Gaza, sprawling more than 350 acres, according to Board of Peace contracting records reviewed by the Guardian.

The site is envisioned as a military operating base for a future International Stabilization Force (ISF), planned as a multinational military force composed of pledged troops. The ISF is part of the newly created Board of Peace which is meant to govern Gaza. The Board of Peace is chaired by Donald Trump and led in part by his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

The plans reviewed by the Guardian call for the phased construction of a military outpost that will eventually have a footprint of 1,400 metres by 1,100 metres, ringed by 26 trailer-mounted armored watch towers, a small arms range, bunkers, and a warehouse for military equipment for operations. The entire base will be encircled with barbed wire.

A source close to the planning tells the Guardian that a small group of bidders – international construction companies with experience in war zones – have already been shown the area in a site visit.

The UN security council authorized the Board of Peace to establish a temporary International Stabilization Force in Gaza. The ISF, according to the UN, will be tasked with securing Gaza’s border and maintaining peace within the area. It’s also supposed to protect civilians, and train and support “vetted Palestinian police forces”.

It is unclear what the ISF’s rules of engagement would be if there is combat, renewed bombing by Israel, or attacks by Hamas. Nor is it clear what role the ISF is meant to play in disarming Hamas, an Israeli condition to proceed with Gaza’s reconstruction.

While more than 20 countries have signed up as members of the Board of Peace, much of the world has stayed away. Although it was set up with the UN’s approval, the organization’s charter appears to grant Trump permanent leadership and control.

“Whose permission did they get to build that military base?”

“The Board of Peace is a kind of legal fiction, nominally with its own international legal personality separate from both the UN and the United States, but in reality it’s just an empty shell for the United States to use as it sees fit,” said Adil Haque, a professor of law at Rutgers University.

Experts say the funding and governance structures are murky, and several contractors have told the Guardian that conversations with US officials are often conducted on Signal rather than over government email.

It is unclear who owns the land where the military compound is set to be built, but much of the south Gaza area is currently under Israeli control. The UN estimates that at least 1.9 million Palestinians have been displaced during the war.

Diana Buttu, a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer and former peace negotiator, called building a military base on Palestinian land without the government’s approval an act of occupation. “Whose permission did they get to build that military base?”

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