A group of Senate Democrats is pushing the Trump administration to explain what, exactly, the U.S. is doing at a new coordination center in Israel and why so little about it has been shared with Congress.
Led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Brian Schatz and joined by ten other democrats, the lawmakers sent a long list of questions in a Sunday letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, which was first reported by NOTUS. The Democratic senators want to know how the Civil-Military Coordination Center operates, who runs it and how much control it has over the flow of aid into Gaza.
“The Trump administration is volunteering American service members at the CMCC for a mission that is doomed to fail,” Warren told NOTUS in a statement. “They must overhaul their approach and stop the Netanyahu government from calling the shots on who gets fed in Gaza.”
The U.S. established the Civil-Military Coordination Center, or CMCC, in the southern Israel city of Kiryat Gat after President Donald Trump’s ceasefire agreement that took effect on Oct. 10. About 200 U.S. troops now work there to oversee the deal and coordinate aid into Gaza.
“We are concerned that the addition of this broad humanitarian mandate executed by military units with little experience in addressing the kind of humanitarian catastrophe facing Gaza … will have significant consequences to the CMCC’s success,” the senators’ letter reads.
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At the top of their question list: whether the administration is rebuilding an aid system that already proved deadly. The U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which recently ended operations, relied on a few militarized aid sites, and more than a thousand Palestinians were killed near those locations as crowds surged and security forces opened fire. They warned that they “should not replicate the harm of the GHF system.”
“Hungry people should not be killed trying to feed their families,” the senators wrote.
The Democrats say a new proposal — a “Gaza Humanitarian Belt” of 12 to 16 aid hubs along Israeli withdrawal lines — looks like the same failed model with a different name.
They also want clarity on why aid is still moving slowly. The ceasefire promises 600 trucks a day, but Gaza is getting far fewer, with many shipments held up at Israeli checkpoints.
The lawmakers are asking the Trump administration to spell out what items should be allowed in and how the U.S. plans to keep them moving.
“The public deserves a clear understanding of how US troops and diplomats will facilitate the rapid distribution of aid in Gaza and relieve Palestinians of an ongoing hunger crisis,” their letter reads.
A State Department spokesperson told NOTUS in a statement that the CMCC is already advancing the ceasefire plan. “We have made tremendous progress on implementing President Trump’s 20-Point Peace Plan,” the spokesperson said.
They also pushed back on concerns about slow aid deliveries. “We’re working around the clock to improve the movement of humanitarian aid and commercial goods into Gaza,” the spokesperson said, adding that more than 32,000 trucks — including over 5,000 with humanitarian supplies — have entered since Oct. 10.
The role of Palestinian officials is another flash point. The senators’ letter notes that Trump’s peace plan says a reformed Palestinian Authority is supposed to take over Gaza, but Palestinian officials have been left out of the Civil-Military Coordination Center.
The State Department said that step comes later. “We are standing up a technocratic committee and it will be transitional until such a time as the reformed PA is able to reassume control in the Gaza Strip,” the spokesperson said.
Finally, the senators want basic clarity on who runs the CMCC, how State and the Pentagon divide responsibilities, which partners are involved, and how the roughly 200 U.S. troops in Kiryat Gat are being protected. They also want to see the metrics the administration is using to judge whether Israel and Hamas are following the ceasefire.
The Democrats say they expect answers and they’ve given the administration a Dec. 22 deadline.
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