Board of Peace’s Gaza rep calls Hamas intimidation of merchants ‘unacceptable’

The Board of Peace’s top Gaza representative calls Hamas’s intimidation of the enclave’s merchants “unacceptable” after they reportedly paused coordination with Israel over the entry of private sector goods into the Strip.

“As I have warned repeatedly, such practices are unacceptable and must end immediately,” says Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for the Strip under the US-backed body tasked with implementing the October 2025 ceasefire plan that ended the Israel-Hamas war. “The intimidation of merchants and interference in the supply chain only deepen the suffering of Gaza’s civilians.”

Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said yesterday that private-sector merchants in Gaza announced that they are suspending coordination for the entry of goods into the Strip until further notice, following what it described as a forced taxation mechanism imposed by Hamas and escalating threats against merchants.

Mladenov called for a Board of Peace-backed Palestinian technocratic committee, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, to take charge in the Strip, secured by a multinational peacekeeping force.

“These developments demonstrate why the rapid deployment of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, supported by the International Stabilization Force, is urgently needed,” Mladenov continues on X. “Civilian supplies, humanitarian assistance and commercial activity must be protected from coercion, exploitation and interference.”

Mladenov calls for the implementation of the Gaza peace plan, “including the arrangements required for NCAG and ISF operations in Gaza. This includes the decommissioning of weapons, the transition to legitimate transitional governance and the protection of humanitarian and commercial supply chains.”