The State Department has deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) “to help surge and coordinate aid into Gaza” as part of the ceasefire agreement, the agency said today.
Most of the team is based in Jerusalem, and the rest of the team is located in different parts of the Middle East, a Trump administration official told CNN.
DARTs used to be deployed in the wake of natural disasters or crises around the globe by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which was dramatically shuttered earlier this year. Elements of the agency were folded into the State Department.
Sources told CNN that some former USAID humanitarian staff are involved in the State Department-deployed DART.
A former USAID official said that in the past, USAID officials led the government’s internal humanitarian aid response efforts and coordinated with donors.
This official told CNN that to be effective, the DART will “need to regain trust” of the international humanitarian community, UN, other donors and partners, and “advocate for expanded humanitarian access and increased aid to ‘flood the zone.’” They also will need COGAT, the Israeli government agency that controls the entry of aid into Gaza, to allow for “fuel, gas, expedited screenings and checks for trucks to get in.”
