CMCC, Kiryat Gat — A truck laden with humanitarian aid winds slowly through a crowded street.

Above the black-and-white drone footage displayed on a massive screen, a color map shows a thin yellow line dividing Hamas-controlled Gaza from the IDF side.

The Hamas territory, 47% of the Strip, is marked in red, the universal military color for the enemy.

The screens showing maps, videos and charts for humanitarian aid and attacks are largely ignored by the hundreds of officers and civilians talking, typing and bustling about the synthetic grass-covered second floor of the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) in Kiryat Gat.

The US and Israeli-led mechanism monitors the Gaza ceasefire that went into effect on October 10, ending two years of bitter war that erupted with the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023. Around 20 countries have soldiers or civilian personnel at the CMCC, joined by some 40 international organizations.

The CMCC was established on October 17 as a “main coordination hub” to “support stabilization efforts” in Gaza, following a declaration signed by Trump and his Turkish, Qatari and Egyptian counterparts in Sharm el Sheikh on October 13, according to the US military’s Central Command.

CENTCOM took Israeli reporters into the center on Wednesday.

Many of the US officers at the CMCC have been in the military for two decades, including those who have been involved with complex reconstruction and humanitarian operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Despite their military experience, the US wants to shift control of the CMCC from the military to........

© The Times of Israel