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The United States is sending up to 200 troops to Israel, not for combat, but to help bring a bit of order to the chaos surrounding Gaza. The mission, announced by U.S. officials on Thursday, will focus on coordinating humanitarian aid and security support, but no American troops will be stepping foot inside the enclave itself.
The new team, called the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC), will operate under the U.S. military’s Central Command. Think of it as a kind of control room, a hub meant to keep the flow of aid moving and to make sure all the different players in the region aren’t working at cross purposes.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Americans will be based in Israel, monitoring the Gaza agreement and working with other international partners already on the ground.
The CMCC won’t just be a U.S. effort. Representatives from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, and possibly the United Arab Emirates will also take part, reflecting the delicate regional balance needed to make any progress in Gaza. Together, they’ll coordinate with Israeli forces and local security networks to prevent any accidental run-ins or miscommunication, no small task in such a tense environment.
“No U.S. troops are intended to go into Gaza,” one American official said plainly, underlining Washington’s determination to stay involved, but not too involved.
The personnel chosen for the task force are experts in planning, logistics, security, and engineering, the sort of behind-the-scenes professionals who make humanitarian operations actually work. Their job will be to get supplies where they’re needed most while trying to keep tensions from boiling over again.
But there’s a larger play here, too. Washington hopes that stabilizing Gaza could help reopen the door to new normalization deals between Israel and its Arab neighbors, something that began under the Abraham Accords during Donald Trump’s presidency. Those agreements saw Israel establish formal ties with Bahrain, the UAE, Morocco, and Sudan.
Now, U.S. officials are eyeing potential future partners, from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia, Mauritania, Algeria, Syria, and Lebanon, though such ambitions will depend heavily on whether the situation in Gaza can be brought under control.
For now, America’s role looks less like the world’s policeman and more like the world’s project manager, trying to keep the gears turning, the aid flowing, and the peace, however tentative, intact.
