Israel has agreed to the extension of two EU missions in the Palestinian Territories until the end of June 2027, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday.
The missions involve supporting and monitoring the movement of people across the Rafah border crossing in Gaza, as well as training Palestinian police officers.
The European Commission also said that Israel had informed it of the extension of both mandates.
As part of the EUPOL COPPS police mission, thousands of Palestinian security forces are to be trained. In addition, EUPOL COPPS is to support the reconstruction of judicial and security structures in the Gaza Strip and organize training programmes for Palestinian police instructors at a police academy in Jericho in the West Bank.
In the Gaza Strip, the police have so far operated under the control of the terrorist organization Hamas. The new police force, which the EU is helping to establish, is set to begin its work as part of a peace plan spearheaded by the US.
Since the reopening of the Rafah crossing in the Gaza Strip at the start of the year, the EUBAM Rafah border protection mission has been monitoring operations and supporting Palestinian border guards.
The EU mission was established back in 2005 to help check the only border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
However, after Hamas took power in Gaza in 2007, no EU personnel was deployed to the border crossing for a very long time because the EU refused to cooperate with Hamas.