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Israeli authorities are reportedly conducting widespread surveillance and recording in a U.S. base set up in southern Israel in October to monitor the Gaza ceasefire.
The Guardian reports that foreign diplomats and other visitors to the base like humanitarian officials are sometimes told to avoid sharing sensitive information for fear that it will be exploited by Israel, creating an atmosphere of paranoia among visitors. A wide range of information could be under discussion there, as U.S. military officials have previously boasted that representatives from 50 nations and international groups are operating with the group.
The monitoring is so widespread that the commander of the base, Patrick Frank, had to summon his Israeli counterpart to tell him the “recording has to stop here,” the publication reports.
The base is known as the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC), and is located in southern Israel, in the building where the disastrous Gaza Humanitarian Foundation once operated. The CMCC’s stated purpose is to monitor the ceasefire and aid its implementation, including the flow of humanitarian aid. It was also established to implement President Donald Trump’s colonialist 20-point plan for the future of Gaza.
The base is home to discussions and meetings between foreign military officials, diplomats, and aid workers, on subjects like “restoring Gaza’s hospitals” and schools, and building out public services like water and sanitation. Palestinians — who are referred to only as “Gazans” within U.S. military planning documents — are excluded from the process.
Those seeking to help Palestinians in Gaza, under siege, famine, and blockade, are stuck in a catch-22 where they feel that they should cooperate with the CMCC but are wary of what to share, for fear of the information landing in Israeli hands.
“We are really unsure how much time and energy to invest,” one source told the Guardian. “But this is the only chance we have of [the Americans] listening to us.”
Israel has denied conducting surveillance at the facility, calling the report “absurd,” though noted that the information discussed there is unclassified, The Guardian writes.
The report also found that dozens of U.S. logistics experts left the CMCC after just a few weeks of its establishment because they found that it was not logistics issues, but Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid that were preventing aid from entering Gaza.
Israel maintains extremely sophisticated, in-depth surveillance programs. This includes highly detailed surveillance of Palestinians in the occupied territories, as well as, historically, a vast amount of spying on American citizens and officials.
Bizarrely, U.S. officials even seem to welcome Israel’s spying. Last month, U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee welcomed infamous Israeli spy Jonathan J. Pollard for a friendly U.S. meeting at the embassy in Jerusalem.
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