US Central Command in December said that 60 countries and organizations were represented at the center. The CMCC has also been tasked with facilitating humanitarian aid entering Gaza since the start of a ceasefire in early October 2025.<\/p>\n
\t The US-led CMCC was established after Trump announced his 20-point plan to end the war. Germany, France, and Canada are also among the countries that have sent personnel there.<\/p>\n Smotrich, speaking at an event marking the establishment of the new Jewish settlement of Yatziv in the West Bank, said that although Trump deserved Israel\u2019s gratitude for his part in returning the hostages held by Hamas and other terror groups in two separate deals, his plan for Gaza \u201cis bad for the state of Israel\u201d and must be shelved.<\/p>\n Instead, he said,\u00a0Hamas should be given a \u201cvery short\u201d ultimatum to disarm and go into exile, and once that ultimatum expires, the military should storm Gaza with \u201cfull force\u201d to destroy the terror group.<\/p>\n \u201cGaza is ours and its future will affect our future more than anyone else\u2019s,\u201d he insisted, and, as such, Jerusalem must \u201ctake responsibility for what is happening there\u201d and \u201cimpose military rule\u201d over its roughly 2.3 million residents.<\/p>\n The far-right minister\u2019s address focused primarily on making the case for reversing the \u201csin\u201d of Israel\u2019s 2005 disengagement from Gaza, a central tenet of his political career.<\/p>\n Boasting that the government had \u201ccorrect[ed] the sin of expulsion,\u201d from a number of northern West Bank settlements, which took place concurrently with the withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, Smotrich argued that \u201cthere is one sin that we have not yet been able to correct, even when it seemed that we had the opportunity and the duty to do so \u2013 the expulsion from Gush Katif.\u201d<\/p>\n Gush Katif was the bloc of 17 settlements located within the Gaza Strip, which were home to around 8,600 Jews. Israel withdrew from the enclave and evacuated the settlements in August 2005.<\/p>\n \t He pointed to the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel as proof that Israel was required to return to the long-gone settlements along the Gaza coastline.<\/p>\n \u201cWasn\u2019t the most terrible massacre that has befallen the Jewish people since the terrible Holocaust enough\u201d to make Israel\u2019s leadership understand what must be done, he asked, insisting that Israel did not pay a price in blood over the past two years of war \u201cso that the Turks and Qataris, who still sponsor Hamas today and are no different from it in their desire to destroy the State of Israel, can sit on our fence.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cErdogan is [former Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar. Qatar is Hamas. There is no difference,\u201d he declared, referencing the United States\u2019 decision to include Qatari and Turkish representatives on the executive committee of the Board of Peace that will oversee the postwar management of Gaza.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is either us or them,\u201d Smotrich warned. \u201cEither full Israeli control, the destruction of Hamas and the continued suppression of terrorism over time, encouraging the enemy\u2019s emigration abroad and permanent Israeli settlement or, God forbid, squandering the efforts and costs of the war and waiting for the next round.\u201d<\/p>\n \t Trump\u2019s plan for the Gaza Strip states that members of Hamas who commit to peaceful coexistence and to decommission their weapons will be given amnesty. Those who want to leave Gaza will be given safe passage to other countries.<\/p>\n The White House last week announced that the president\u2019s plan to end the war was moving to the second phase, which would include the demilitarization and reconstruction of Gaza.<\/p>\n Under the initial phase of the plan, Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza that went into effect in October.<\/p>\n Hamas also released the remaining living hostages abducted from Israel during the October 2023 assault, who had been held in Gaza since then. The remains of all but one deceased hostage, Police Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, were handed over as well.<\/p>\n Gvili\u2019s loved ones have demanded that Trump\u2019s plan not progress to its second phase until his body is returned.<\/p>\n Since the ceasefire started, Israel has repeatedly carried out air strikes and shelling in the Palestinian enclave, in response to what it says were violations of the ceasefire agreement, including attempts to approach troops stationed on the Israeli-controlled side of the Yellow Line.<\/p>\n The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says that over 460 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the ceasefire, although the figure does not differentiate between combatants and civilians and cannot be independently verified.<\/p>\n Three Israeli soldiers have been killed in the same period.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tIsraeli and US Army soldiers discuss civil-military operations inside the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) on October 28, 2025. (US Army)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AP25211565515804-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tRight-wing activists attend a rally calling for the reestablishment of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, near the border in southern Israel, July 30, 2025. (AP Photo\/Ohad Zwigenberg)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/F260110ALH20-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tDisplaced Palestinians seen around their tents in the Bureij area of the central Gaza Strip, January 10, 2026. (Ali Hassan\/Flash90)<\/p>\n
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