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Wednesday, August 26, 2026
IDF strikes on Gaza only delay Hamas’s disarmament, says Board of Peace envoy
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleJacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
Board of Peace Gaza envoy Nickolay Mladenov calls out Israel for refusing to halt its strikes in Gaza, which he says violate the disarmament plan backed by the US-controlled body.
Mladenov notes during a Security Council briefing that the near-daily strikes, which Israel says are targeting Hamas operatives, have continued killing Palestinian civilians.
While the Board of Peace has established a deconfliction cell with Israel to address potential threats as they emerge in Gaza before they escalate, Mladenov admits that Jerusalem is not always using that mechanism.
Mladenov and US special envoy Jared Kushner tried to convince Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an August 17 meeting in Jerusalem to limit strikes in Gaza to imminent threats but failed to do so, with the premier insisting that the IDF would continue targeting all terrorists involved in Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.
“Every use of force that does not answer an immediate threat, and every incident that the deconfliction mechanism was not asked to resolve, costs the process something that is very, very hard to buy back,” Mladenov warns.
Questioning the logic of Israel’s policy of continued strikes in Gaza, Mladenov asks the Security Council: “Will another strike on a munitions depot stop Hamas from rearming or tightening its grip on Gaza?”
“It will not. It only delays the demilitarization that would happen, and it obstructs the civilian transition that should take place to ensure that remilitarization will not be possible in the future.”
While criticizing Israel, Mladenov says Hamas has also failed to fully meet its commitments to cease all military activities, as part of its July 30 acceptance of the Board of Peace’s disarmament proposal.
“Hamas has committed to cease all military activities. That commitment is still to be met in full,” Mladenov says.
“Every weapon carried, every tunnel still worked on, and every convoy still obstructed sets the process back and hands an argument to those who want to resume war,” he laments.
“Gaza does not have it in it to have another catastrophe. If the ceasefire collapses and the Strip spirals into another full escalation, there will be no roadmap to return to,” Mladenov warns.
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