PRISTINA: Kosovo on Monday approved sending troops to Gaza for an international security force as part of a U.S.-backed initiative after last year's ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Several nations including Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan and Albania have committed troops to the International Stabilization Force to keep peace and back a transitional administration in Gaza under U.S. President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace."

Kosovo's government said in a televised ministerial meeting on Monday the defence ministry had decided to send a force to Gaza after receiving a U.S. invitation in December.

"We are ready to participate and help the people of Gaza, because we ourselves have been and are beneficiaries of international forces since 1999," Prime Minister Albin Kurti told the session.

The government did not reveal numbers of troops going to Gaza.

Violence in Gaza has persisted with the Israeli military killing over 680 Palestinians since the ceasefire with armed fighters group Hamas began in November, local health officials say. More than 72,000 have been killed since the war started in October 2023.

Kosovo, a Balkan country of 1.6 million people, is an ally of the U.S. which backed its independence from Serbia in 2008.