Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headed to Washington Monday afternoon just hours before his own security cabinet took one of the most consequential decisions of this round of the war, allowing an international force to enter Gaza for the first time since the fighting started. These two events are no coincidence. They're the same story; two sides of a single negotiation, both conducted in the background of a seemingly over war that really nobody seems to think is over.

The Sunday evening cabinet decision paved the way for about 200 troops from nations such as Uganda and Morocco to start operating in some areas in the Gaza Strip outside the control of Israeli troops under the name of what is being called the International Stabilization Force. It is the working structure of the Board of Peace, the postwar administration based on Donald Trump's twenty-point plan and currently led by his envoy Nickolay Mladenov. The first deployment will be a "pilot" project near the town of Rafah, containing temporary housing, controlled access to the town and a humanitarian zone which will be protected under conditions that Israel says will continue after the force's arrival.

There was not a unanimous opinion about getting there. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was among those who opposed the move, claiming Hamas has failed to honour its own commitments and therefore there is no reason for Israel to accept anything from outside forces. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, however, had a different opinion: He told his officials that the plan is international in its reach and that, if Israel has doubts about the plan's success, it is not it who must be perceived as trying to sabotage it. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also supported the move, despite the objections of Settlements Minister Orit Strock, who said the only thing redeeming about the international consensus is the fact that it backs the move. The three-way division that arose within the same ruling coalition, just as election year approaches, is a story in and of itself of how shaky the home politics under this decision are in reality.

Netanyahu is set to meet Trump in Washington on Tuesday and also attend a burial service for the late U.S. Senate ally, Lindsey Graham. The original idea was to depart at 11 a.m. Monday, but it was delayed by two hours before his plane took off from Nevatim Airbase near Beersheba. The timing of the visit, which follows the cabinet decision and first tangible step on the ground for Trump's peace plan, will likely not be coincidence. Washington gets to point to progress, Netanyahu gets cover at home for a decision that a fair cross of his own coalition doesn't like.

Underneath all this is a tremendous amount of money, much of which has not yet been settled. In the spring of this year, World Bank, UN and EU also estimated the total damages and losses in Gaza at $57.9 billion, with $71.4 billion in recovery and reconstruction costs expected in the next 10 years, of which more than $35 billion is for physical infrastructure. More recently, Oxfam and Palestinian research organisations have claimed that number is almost seven times the combined cost of reconstruction after the 2008-09, 2014 and 2021 conflicts; and that any reconstruction model driven by donor money, but which bypasses Palestinian institutions, is doomed to fail, whatever the amount of capital behind it. Gulf and European finance officials have indicated they would be happy to pay for part of that bill, but a meeting to reconstruct the bill with commitments has yet to be set.

The price of the war has been a cost on the Israeli side. 2026 defense spending of approximately 144 billion shekels has been gradually increased to 177 billion shekels an effective 8 percent of GDP from less than 5 percent prior to October 2023. The fiscal deficit target has been whittled down from its original 3.9 percent of GDP to the low 5 percent level and growth projections have been cut as the Finance Ministry and the Bank of Israel butcher back and forth over which of their figures is more believable. Operating costs have dropped dramatically from their wartime levels of around 1 billion shekels a day, down to below 250 million shekels daily as active fronts have abated, but defense officials say that if things escalate whether in Lebanon, with Iran or with regard to the stalled Gaza handover that shortfall can be reopened quickly.

On top of that is an increasingly negative political sentiment. Former prime minister Naftali Bennett on Monday said he will make it a "formal point" that Qatar is a "state hostile to us" and that Doha and its Al Jazeera network are conducting an "influence campaign" targeting Israel in capitals around the world, and inside Netanyahu's own office. Two drones were also reportedly as captured by Jordan the same morning, but without being identified as to their source. It didn't stop the main event of the day, but it's against the backdrop of an armed and constantly armed region, a home-grown Israeli establishment divided down the middle and a reconstruction bill larger than the sum of its parts.

The outcome of the election on Monday is less of a factor than whether Washington is willing to make a permanent effort of making the Rafah pilot project work and whether Gulf and European donors are prepared to hand over the $100 million they've pledged to support a project that still lacks a consensus about who will rule Gaza when the tents are erected.