The Board of Peace’s top Gaza envoy on Tuesday revealed the principles of the disarmament proposal submitted to Hamas earlier this month, urging the international community to pressure the Palestinian terror group to accept the offer in order to prevent another cycle of violence in the Gaza Strip.
“It has been presented to the parties, and the engagement on it is very serious,” Board of Peace High Representative for Gaza Nickolay Mladenov said in remarks at the United Nations Security Council’s monthly session on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Two senior Arab officials familiar with the proposal submitted by Gaza ceasefire mediating countries — the United States, Qatar, Egypt and Turkey — told The Times of Israel that they expect Hamas to respond with a counteroffer in the coming days.
While the officials offered some details on the proposal, which were published in The Times of Israel, Mladenov’s briefing to the Security Council was the first time aspects of the disarmament offer were disclosed on the record.
Five principles of disarmament
According to Mladenov, who briefed the council repeatedly during his previous tenures as UN envoy for Iraq and the Middle East peace process, the proposal to Hamas has five principles.
“First is reciprocity. Decommissioning proceeds in parallel with staged withdrawal (by the IDF). This is fundamental to the credibility of the entire process,” he said.
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly endorsed US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for ending the Gaza war last year, he and other members of his government have expressed a desire to maintain a permanent IDF presence in at least the eastern half of the Strip still controlled by Israel.
Mladenov said that the second principle of the disarmament proposal submitted to Hamas is sequencing. Confirming The Times of Israel’s reporting, he said that “the most dangerous weapons — rockets, heavy munitions, explosive devices, assault rifles owned by arm groups [will be] addressed first [and] Tunnels must be neutralized.”
“Personal weapons are addressed later through a registration and collection process,” he said, ostensibly referring to what the Arab diplomats said would be the buy-back program in which funds and jobs are offered to those who hand over their weapons to the Palestinian police force being formed.
Tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians have already applied to serve in this police force, which will operate under the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), the technocratic government that will transitionally replace Hamas in running the Strip until the Palestinian Authority has completed the reforms necessary to take over.
Police applicants are currently being vetted, Mladenov said, touting Egypt’s agreement to serve as the “lead training partner” for the force, which will be launched in the coming weeks.
As for the third principle of the disarmament plan, Mladenov characterized it as “verification.”
“Compliance (with the program) will need to be monitored and verified,” he said, asserting that the reconstruction of Gaza is strictly contingent on the decommissioning of weapons.
“Fourthly, the framework addresses the people, not just the weapons,” the Board of Peace envoy continued. “It includes pathways for individuals currently affiliated with armed groups to re-enter civilian life with dignity, through structured amnesty arrangements and reintegration programs.”
While previous Gaza ceasefire proposals offered immunity to Hamas operatives who give up their weapons, Israel has reportedly ruled out such an exchange for those it says took part in the October 7, 2023, onslaught or other terror activities against Israel.
The fifth principle of the disarmament proposal relates to the timeline, Mladenov said.
“My office has the authority to grant timeline extensions when parties are making good faith efforts,” he explained. “This is a managed process with built-in flexibility because the reality on the ground does not always conform to the timelines on paper.”
During their last meeting with Hamas and other Palestinian factions in Cairo earlier this month, the Gaza mediators stressed that implementing the disarmament proposal “is the only way to ensure that reconstruction in Gaza and Israeli military withdrawal happens,” Mladenov said.
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