The US military-led group supporting “stabilization efforts” in Gaza has submitted plans for a residential complex for Palestinians in Gaza, in an area under full Israeli military control. According to materials released by the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) and obtained by Drop Site News, the “planned community,” if developed, would contain and monitor its residents through biometric surveillance, checkpoints, purchase monitoring, and educational programs promoting normalization of relations with Israel.
The CMCC was established by the US Central Command (CENTCOM) on October 17, a week after Hamas and Israel agreed to a prisoner exchange and the entry into force of a ceasefire. The center, housed in a large warehouse-style building in Kiryat Gat, southern Israel, and involving dozens of countries and organizations, is expected to “monitor the implementation of the ceasefire” and “help facilitate the flow of humanitarian, logistical, and security assistance from international counterparts to Gaza,” according to CENTCOM.
The CMCC is led by U.S. Army General Patrick D. Frank and includes U.S. and Israeli military officers, as well as personnel from dozens of countries, including France, Great Britain, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt. The CMCC was a key element of President Trump’s ceasefire plan, although it is unclear where exactly it will operate within the new structures created after Trump announced Phase Two of the plan last week, which includes the formation of a so-called “Peace Council” to oversee Gaza, with a Founding Executive Committee within it and a Gaza Executive Committee composed of Palestinian technocrats.
In November, news first emerged that the Trump administration was planning to build several residential complexes, dubbed “Secure Alternative Communities,” to house Palestinians from Gaza east of the Yellow Line, an area occupied and controlled by the Israeli army. Satellite imagery analysis by Forensic Architecture suggests that the first of these so-called communities is being prepared on a 1-square-kilometer plot in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, at the intersection of two military corridors.
“Plans for what US officials cynically called ‘Gaza’s first planned community,’ formerly known as ‘Secure Alternative Communities,’ are accelerating rapidly,” said Jonathan Whittall, senior UN official in Palestine between 2022 and 2025 and executive director of the KEYS Initiative, a strategic and policy affairs consultancy, after reviewing a transcript of materials obtained by Drop Site. “This is the next phase in the militarization of aid.”
Last week, a presentation was held at the CMCC headquarters on the “First Planned Community of Gaza,” which will be built to house up to 25,000 Palestinians. One million people are awaiting relocation.
Palestinians will have to pass through a checkpoint to access the area. “Residents will be able to freely enter and exit the neighborhood, subject to security checks to prevent the introduction of weapons and hostile elements,” the documents read. “All incoming residents will be registered with biometric documentation to allow identification for travel and civil services.”
“The registry will be based on Palestinian identification numbers issued by the authorities in coordination with COGAT,” a reference to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the branch of the Israeli military that oversees Palestinian civil affairs in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, giving the Israeli military even greater surveillance control over Palestinians hosted in the area.
CENTCOM referred Drop Site’s requests for information about CMCC’s plans to the White House, which in turn referred the requests to the State Department. No one commented.
Part of the CMCC presentation for a “Gaza First Planned Community” dated January 14, 2026. The presentation does not specify who would select Palestinians to live in the area, although all security screenings for Palestinians in Gaza in the past (such as for permission to enter or leave the enclave) were ultimately conducted through COGAT. It does, however, provide a set of criteria for deciding Which Palestinians should be “invited” to live there?
The population should be based on the invited Palestinian residents based on the following criteria: priority is given to pre-war residents of the Shaboura and Rafah areas. Preference is given to intact extended families to enable mutual aid and prevent friction.
Essential professionals are required: teachers, medical personnel, relief workers, community workers, merchants, administrative/municipal staff, and banking/financial professionals.
All individuals will be subject to security checks to prevent the entry of weapons or Hamas elements.
On January 22, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, presented a map of the new “master plan” for the reconstruction of Gaza by the “peace council.”
The plan includes a “new Rafah,” which includes an airport and a seaport, and a “new Gaza,” which has been transformed primarily into an industrial area, despite having a higher population than southern Gaza before the war.
Specifically, the entire strip contains a buffer zone of approximately 1.4 km from the Israeli border. The coast, the border with Israel, and the border with Egypt are all under Israeli control.
Antonio Albanese e Graziella Giangiulio
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