A new US-run system for Gaza aid is bringing Americans, Israelis and humanitarian workers around the same table for the first time since the start of the two-year war, The National has been told.
International aid groups with detailed knowledge of the matter revealed how the US-led logistics and co-ordination centre is operating after it was set up last month. “This is the first time that everybody’s talking to each other in real time,” one humanitarian source said.
Operations at the Civil Military Co-ordination Centre (CMCC) stand in contrast to the former Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which sidelined well-established organisations such as the UN that had been operating in the West Bank and Gaza for decades. The installation of four GHF sites in the south and centre of the strip earlier this year led to stampedes and massacres in which at least 1,400 people died, UN figures show.
The CMCC, established as part of the second ceasefire, which began in October, allows the US, represented by 200 troops, Israel and aid agencies to collaborate on the best ways to distribute aid. Its three-storey warehouse in Kiryat Qat, southern Israel, acts as a headquarters for monitoring the ceasefire and other activities related to the US President Donald Trump's 20-point plan for Gaza.
With one floor dedicated to the Americans, one to the Israelis and another common floor where meetings can happen with humanitarians and donor states, a lot more collaboration takes place on issues of relief and beyond. But will it make a difference?
Speaking to The National, several organisations with close knowledge of the matter said the CMCC may offer a few glimmers of hope in an otherwise abysmal situation perpetuated by Israel, which has not held up its end of the ceasefire agreement that called for 600 lorries of aid to flow into the strip every day.
Data from Cogat, the Israeli military body overseeing the occupied Palestinian territories, shows that 1,899 lorries entered in October – an average of about 61 lorries per day.
Crucial and frustrating problems that had plagued aid workers in Gaza for months – such as the potential “dual use” of essential supplies like tents and medical kits, meaning they could in theory have military uses – are being discussed at meetings. US and Israeli officials sat alongside representatives from aid groups who aired their grievances with the Israeli policies.
But the road to a proper understanding of the hurdles imposed by Israel has been long. Basic questions, like why cement is not being brought into Gaza to repair the destroyed water infrastructure, were met with answers that “floored” officials, another source said. That is when they began to realise that the problems were not logistical.
“There was a big gap in understanding by the Americans that this is all by design by the Israelis,” another source said. “That is when the conversation shifted to bureaucratic impediments and why they exist.”
The presence of the US army in these discussions has been “important”, the source added, given that they are logistics experts and familiar with supply chain and delivery. “They are used to the typical ways for how this is supposed to work and are quick to realise when it doesn't.”
Other clarifications on why aid groups were unable to reach areas in Gaza where assistance is most needed included explaining that Israel has closed border crossings that are essential for the entire process.
Implementation
As of last Friday, the CMCC had taken over Cogat's activities – an announcement that one of the sources said was long-awaited. But what that will actually mean on the ground remains to be seen. At the same time, needs are staggeringly high and progress has been slow.
The UN declared a famine in Gaza city in August with worries that it would spread to other areas. At least 80 per cent of Gaza's infrastructure is destroyed, and not a single fully functioning hospital stands. Close to 70,000 people have been killed and more than 170,000 injured over the last two years.
Winter is approaching and people living in dilapidated, flimsy tents are likely to suffer, particularly those who call Gaza's coastline home. “Everybody is concerned about the winter,” one of the sources said. “We have tents fraying on the beach that will for sure get flooded as soon as we get bad weather.”
And with so many of the largest aid providers like the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) – which holds the largest cache of supplies for Gaza – now banned by law in Israel, and others pending a positive response to a re-registration process that places Palestinian employees at risk, humanitarians are hoping for a change that would at last bring relief.
