U.S. steps up Gaza aid role to support fragile ceasefire

The U.S. military-led “coordination center” charged with implementing President Donald Trump’s peace plan in the Gaza Strip is replacing Israel as the overseer of humanitarian aid to the enclave, even as multiple people familiar with the center’s first weeks of operations have described it as chaotic and indecisive.

In a transition that was completed Friday, the Israelis are still “part of the conversation,” but decisions will be taken by the wider body, a U.S. official said, referencing the shift from COGAT, the unit within the Israel Defense Forces responsible for regulating and facilitating aid in Gaza, to the Civil-Military Coordination Center set up in southern Israel near the Gaza border.

Several people familiar with the transition said the move relegates Israel to a secondary role in determining how and what humanitarian relief can enter Gaza as CMCC takes the lead. Since the Gaza ceasefire began last month, humanitarian aid, while improved, has remained significantly restricted by Israel.

More than 40 countries and organizations are represented in the U.S.-led center, and “one of the benefits … of bringing them all together is that enables you to really sort through fact from fiction and get a clearer understanding of what is happening on the ground, where the needs lie,” Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for the U.S. Central Command, said in an interview.

Until now, the IDF has opened only two entryways for aid into Gaza, with the vast majority of aid coming through Kerem Shalom in the south. There have been no direct deliveries to northern Gaza since early September. Many of the trucks allowed to enter, according to the United Nations, are commercial shipments of goods offered for sale in Gaza markets that few have money to buy.

The transit point between Jordan, where large quantities of aid are waiting, and Israel over the Allenby Bridge on the Jordan River has been closed for much of the year. The majority of international aid organizations have largely been barred from bringing food into Gaza for months since Israel imposed intrusive new registration rules they have refused to sign.

Aid organizations long have complained of Israel’s restrictions on “dual-use items” that it deems capable of being turned into weapons, which have included tent poles, medical scalpels and ointment to treat skin infections.

“Israel is blocking the Trump plan’s humanitarian clauses,” Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said Thursday in anticipation of the transition to CMCC control. “For us, to have the U.S. actively engaged is very good news.”

Although the Trump peace plan includes a massive increase in the amount of assistance, the United States has not said which, if any, of the Israeli restrictions might now be lifted, how the CMCC plans to manage the massive aid project and whether new rules would be acceptable to aid organizations wary of any kind of military control.

“Our appeal is make the plan a reality,” Egeland said. “Of course, the credibility of the United States is at stake here.”

COGAT did not initially respond to questions about its role.

A COGAT statement sent to The Post after publication of this article said, “The Americans will be integrated into the formulation and implementation of coordination, supervision, and control mechanisms in the context of humanitarian aid, in full cooperation with the Israeli security services.”

An additional statement, attributed to unnamed “Israeli officials,” said that while “the Americans will take the lead in engaging with the international community on humanitarian matters. … It should be emphasized that this does not constitute a transfer of authority or responsibility from COGAT to the Americans.” There was “no change in policy,” Israeli authorities said, governing aid inspection or dual-use items, and aid entry “will be carried out solely by [Israeli] approved international organizations.”

A watchful eye

Trump has acknowledged that he pressured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the peace agreement, but it’s unclear how far he is willing to go in ensuring that Israel comports with all elements of his 20-point plan.

As part of the implementation, the U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for planning and coordinating the U.S. military in the region, has also stepped up its own surveillance of Gaza, including with drones to monitor both aid distribution and the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.

Last week, Centcom posted a video taken from an MQ-9 Reaper drone of what it said were Hamas “operatives” looting a heavily laden aid truck in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.

A second U.S. official said publication of the video was part of an effort to pressure Hamas, whose militants have emerged to control parts of Gaza where, as part of the ceasefire, Israel has withdrawn. The official is one of at least a dozen people familiar with CMCC operations interviewed for this report, most of whom discussed its progress and difficulties on the condition of anonymity.

Despite the official ceasefire, Israel has reserved the right to respond to anything it determines is a threat to its own security, and it has continued occasional airstrikes in Gaza and fired on civilians who approach territory controlled by the IDF.

“As long as Centcom is activated and operating there, and as long as the U.S. is sort of putting its reputation on the line, so to speak, I think you’re going to see a lot more U.S. assets and U.S.-military run operations,” said an aid worker who recently returned to Washington from the CMCC. Publicly announcing the drone overflights “was a signal that we’re not relying on IDF intelligence or IDF drones. … We have our own assets that we are operating.”

Even as the U.S. continues monitoring Hamas activities, its continued pressure on Israel is considered critical to moving the peace plan forward and ensuring ongoing support from governments in Europe and the Middle East, and nongovernmental organizations, all of whose buy-in is deemed vital.

Israel has pushed back forcefully against any suggestion that it is under the U.S.’s thumb and that Centcom is collecting its own intelligence to verify Israel’s compliance with the agreement.

“The whole activity of the Americans operating in Gaza is something new,” said Yossi Kuperwasser, a former IDF general who served as director general of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs. “But the rules, in my mind, of sharing information are the same. Whatever is valuable for Israel is shared.”

With Trump having claimed that Gaza is now on the path to a peaceful, prosperous future, “the one vital, strategic mission” for the U.S. is now “to babysit Bibi … to make sure there is no return to fighting,” one person familiar with White House thinking said, using Netanyahu’s nickname.

In the weeks since the ceasefire, the administration has sent a steady stream of high-level minders to visit the CMCC and Netanyahu’s government, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine and, last weekend, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

Trump has outlined a grand post-ceasefire vision, describing his Gaza initiative as a “historic dawn of a new Middle East” that includes the expansion of the Abraham Accords, the diplomatic normalization agreement he brokered during his first term between Israel and four Arab states.

But many regional leaders, including Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who will visit the White House in mid-November, are waiting for assurances that the war is truly over and that Israel will relinquish control over the enclave. On Monday, Trump will host President Ahmed al-Sharaa of Syria, with whom he *hopes to expand U.S. security relations.