The Trump administration is going to close the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC), which is the main military-run organization near Gaza. This is a big blow to the President’s ambitious 20-point peace plan. The CMCC was set up in Kiryat Gat, Israel, to keep an eye on the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and make it easier for humanitarian aid to get to the people who need it. However, it has come under increasing criticism for not being able to stop the fighting or significantly increase the flow of aid to the besieged Palestinians. Diplomats say that the closure, which Washington calls a “restructuring,” is a direct result of the plan’s second phase getting stuck. Hamas’s refusal to disarm and Israel’s ongoing land grabs are mostly to blame for this deadlock. Both of these things have made it harder for the transition to a technocratic government.
The International Stabilization Force (ISF), a U.S.-led security mission, will take over the CMCC’s duties under the new plan. But this change means that the U.S. will have a lot less of a presence there. The number of American troops at the site is expected to drop from 190 to just 40, and the administration wants to make up for the loss with international civilian staff. The “Board of Peace,” which is in charge of Gaza policy and is led by Trump, has publicly denied reports of a total shutdown. However, sources inside the organization say that the CMCC’s original mandate is being phased out. This change has made global allies nervous because they had sent troops and billions of dollars to the $70 billion reconstruction plan, which now seems to be on hold indefinitely while the U.S. focuses on the larger conflict with Iran. Some critics say that combining the center with the ISF might just be a cosmetic change that doesn’t fix the problem of not having enough enforcement power on the ground. The future of the October truce is still uncertain as the administration changes, leaving the promised “rebuilding of Gaza” in a state of diplomatic limbo.
