Board of Peace denies plans to shut down ceasefire coordination HQ in Israel’s south

A Reuters report claims the center is to be folded into the as-yet unformed International Stabilization Force as ceasefire frays and Hamas disarmament stalls

US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace has denied a report that the US will be shutting down the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC), tasked with facilitating the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza and monitoring the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

“Any claim that the CMCC is closing is wrong. The CMCC is advancing its efforts every day to continue delivering aid at a level unprecedented in modern history,” tweeted the official X account of the Board of Peace, a US-led international body responsible for overseeing the postwar management of Gaza.

Earlier Friday, Reuters quoted seven unnamed sources familiar with the matter who claimed that the Trump administration will be shutting down the CMCC, which is based in the southern Israeli city of Kiryat Gat.

According to two sources quoted by Reuters, the CMCC will be folded into the planned International Stabilization Force (ISF). Subsequently, the CMCC is to be rebranded as the International Gaza Support Center and will be led by Major General Jasper Jeffers, the White House-appointed ISF commander.

The ISF was a key element in the 20-point plan announced by the White House on September 29 of last year, which led to the ceasefire as well as the return of all Israeli hostages to Israel.

According to the plan, the ISF is meant to gradually supplant IDF forces in areas the latter currently controls in Gaza, and to train and support a Palestinian police force that will provide long-term security to the Strip.

While the plan called for the ISF to be deployed “immediately” to Gaza, no such force has been deployed in the more than six months since the plan was announced, though Trump announced in February that five countries have agreed to contribute personnel to the force.

Diplomats quoted by Reuters also claimed that the quantity of aid entering Gaza had mostly stagnated despite the CMCC’s stated purpose of coordinating such aid. The Board of Peace rejected these claims on X, noting that food aid was reaching more Gazans than previously and that nutrition had improved.

The questions over CMCC’s future come amid ongoing challenges to two of the key components of the 20-point plan, namely a suspension of all military operations and the disarmament of Hamas.

Operations at the CMCC have been reportedly rocky since its establishment, with US forces stationed at the facility said to accuse their Israeli counterparts of conducting widespread surveillance of those working there only two months into the ceasefire. The IDF called the claim, which appeared in The Guardian, “absurd.”

Then, in January, eight foreign diplomats told Reuters that officials from some European countries had not returned to the CMCC since the Christmas and New Year holidays. Several nations were questioning the purpose of the center, with one Western diplomat describing it as “directionless.”

More than 800 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the ceasefire, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the Strip. The figures have not been independently verified, and do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the ceasefire.

Meanwhile, Hamas has re-established control over the roughly half of Gaza outside IDF control, and negotiations over its disarmament have stalled. Nearly three weeks after the expiration of an ultimatum to respond to the Board of Peace’s disarmament proposal, Hamas has still not agreed to any plan that would involve relinquishing all its weapons.