Board of Peace focus on Hamas risks return to war in Gaza, critics say | Israel-Gaza war

The Peace Board’s top diplomat blamed Hamas for the stalled ceasefire, but critics said the US-backed board’s failure to act impartially in implementing the ceasefire risked a return to war.

“High Representative for Gaza” Nickolay Mladenov told the UN Security Council on Thursday that Hamas is the “main obstacle” to maintaining the ceasefire because it “refuses to accept verified disarmament, give up coercive control and allow genuine civilian transition.”

Hamas rejected the Bulgarian diplomat’s accusations. His spokesman, Hazem Kasim, said the report “reflects the continued adoption of Israel’s position and serves as an attempt by Israel to justify further escalation of tensions.”

Critics of the Peace Board, which Donald Trump launched in January, said the Mladenov report made a misleading and one-sided statement about the ceasefire, of which Israel was the main violator.

Israeli forces continue air strikes on Gaza. They also advanced across the ceasefire line agreed in October, increasing the area under direct Israeli control from the agreed 53 percent to at least 60 percent, and regularly opened fire on Palestinians who came within a few hundred meters of the crossing line. More than 850 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire was declared in October.

Israel has also failed to meet its obligation to allow the entry of 600 trucks of humanitarian supplies per day and has refused to ease restrictions on “dual-use” supplies that prevent aid agencies from bringing in essential humanitarian supplies such as water pipes or heavy machinery to begin clearing debris.

Israel was not directly criticized in Mladenov’s report, only implied references to “all parties”. Critics said Mladenov’s report could legitimize Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to return to war in the future by placing blame solely on Hamas.

“Israel has not fulfilled any of its obligations under the first phase of the agreement, so why should anyone have confidence that they will make it through to the second phase, especially when the weapons (Gaza’s only trump card) run out?” Muhammad Shehada, visiting researcher at the Middle East program of the European Council on Foreign Relations, said:

“If they say no, Netanyahu will be free in Gaza and freed from all obligations under the Trump agreement and can declare war whenever he wants.”

Successive versions of Mladenov’s road map were presented to Hamas and other Palestinian groups in March and April. The April version proposed creating an “implementation verification committee” that would oversee the disarmament of Hamas and other armed groups while ensuring Israel takes reciprocal steps.

The documents state that the inventory and collection of weapons will be “phased in gradually” and that “heavy weapons” will be delivered within 90 days, although the definition of “heavy” will also include assault rifles. The April version of the road map stated that disarmament would be monitored by multilateral bodies, but added that “the process will take place under Palestinian leadership.”

Israeli analyst Gershon Baskin, who has been involved in back-channel negotiations with Palestinian groups in the past, welcomed the road map and said: “Israel and Hamas must accept it and begin implementing it immediately.”

However, Baskin criticized Mladenov’s description of the impasse, placing the blame squarely on Hamas. He said the militant group “has shown that it is willing to begin the process of disarmament and disarmament.”

“Hamas’ demand is that this be done in parallel with the commitments that Israel has made and has not fulfilled,” Baskin said.

In his report to the UN, Mladenov accused Hamas of tightening its grip on the 40 percent of Gaza that is still under its control. But Hamas has been calling since February for the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), a panel of 12 Palestinian technocrats formed by the Peace Board in January, to be allowed into the region to begin the transfer of power.

“The Hamas guys in Gaza are much more pragmatic,” Baskin said. “They don’t have the money, they don’t have the resources, and the people in Gaza don’t want them. And they know they can’t go on like this.”

Under Mladenov’s plan, NCAG is supposed to oversee the disarmament of armed groups in Gaza, but Baskin said Israel has staunchly denied allowing committee members to enter Gaza from Egypt, where they have become an administration-in-waiting.

“This is Israel’s insistence that NCAG not come in,” he said. “The Americans were told by the Israelis that if NCAG was allowed in, it would create a situation like in Lebanon, where there would be a formal government but the real power would be armed men in the streets.”

“I don’t think it’s a big problem,” Baskin added. “The biggest problem is that Israel wants to renew the war, and they are creating the conditions where the Israeli public is pumped up every day, with the media telling them that Hamas is rebuilding itself, that Hamas is gaining strength, which is really an exaggerated exaggeration of reality.”

Daniel Levy, the British-Israeli head of the US/Middle East Project and former peace negotiator in previous Israeli-Palestinian talks, said Hamas did not reject disarmament and devolution.

“It became clear that they were ready to hand over control. There was never a question about it,” Levy said. “But at the same time, there should be no rearmament, no display of weapons and [surrendering] heavy weapons. “They’ve laid out some of these things, but they’re not going to wave a white flag of surrender.”

The uncertainty left Palestinian officials at NCAG stranded in a Cairo hotel. They attended seminars on governance and state-building and recently flew to Brussels to meet EU officials, but were prevented from speaking to the press.

Shehada said four NCAG members threatened to resign.

“With the lack of progress in Gaza, they realized that these were a distraction that would buy Israel more time,” he said, adding that four members were persuaded to stay by Mladenov.

A source close to NCAG said its members were aware their reputation for honesty among Palestinians had been damaged by their involvement with the Peace Board, but added: “They also know there is no alternative. If there is any hope of stopping the killings in Gaza, this is the only game in town.”