Army Col. Edwin Minges speaks with a civilian representative of a nongovernment organization on Oct. 27, 2025, after a meeting at the Civil-Military Coordination Center in Israel. American forces will not be deployed to Gaza, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command said Nov. 12. (Christopher Stelter/U.S. Army)
American troops will not be sent to Gaza, U.S. Central Command said Wednesday, denying news reports that the Pentagon plans to establish a nearby base while its forces oversee the delicate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
As part of the ceasefire agreement, the U.S. has been working with partners to develop an international stabilization force in Gaza made up of foreign troops, who could secure the area as residents seek to rebuild after two years of fighting.
Reports of the establishment of a U.S. military base near Gaza are inaccurate, CENTCOM spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said in a statement Wednesday.
“To be clear, no U.S. troops will be deployed into Gaza,” Hawkins said in the statement. “Any reporting to the contrary is false.”
The U.S. currently has about 200 troops in Israel as part of the newly established Civil-Military Coordination Center, which helps facilitate international humanitarian and security assistance into Gaza and monitors the ceasefire agreement.
A nonprofit news organization in Israel, citing unidentified Israeli officials, reported this week that the U.S. was eyeing a $500 million base near the border with Gaza that would accommodate 10,000 people, including American forces.
The U.S. military is acting in a planning capacity to develop potential options for basing the international troops who will be part of the stabilization force, Hawkins said.
The U.S. Navy was looking into options for a temporary base near Gaza whose staffing does not include U.S. troops, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday, citing an internal contracting document.
The request for information, which is not a formal call for a bid, asked companies to submit cost estimates for a “temporary, self-sustaining military base of operations capable of supporting 10,000 personnel and providing 10,000 square feet of office space for a period of 12 months,” according to Bloomberg.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told the outlet that such a plan had not been approved by the administration and should not be deemed an official plan for the Middle East.
