Board of Peace envoy urges UNSC ‘to use every means at its disposal’ to disarm Hamas

Board of Peace envoy urges UNSC ‘to use every means at its disposal’ to disarm Hamas

REUTERS and TOI STAFF

The Board of Peace’s lead envoy for Gaza called on the UN Security Council on Thursday “to use every means at its disposal” to press Hamas to disarm, warning that failure to do so could see the enclave’s current division could become permanent.

US President Donald Trump set up the Board of Peace to oversee his ambitious plan to end Israel’s two-year war in Gaza that was sparked by the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, and rebuild the shattered territory.

But its implementation has stalled, with Hamas refusing to lay down arms and Israel maintaining troops in a large swathe of Gaza representing around 60% of the 365-square-kilometre (140-square-mile) enclave. Even before the war, the territory was one of the most densely populated places in the world.

“The risk is that the deteriorating status quo becomes permanent – a divided Gaza, Hamas holding military and administrative control over 2 million people across less than half the territory,” Nickolay Mladenov, Trump’s Board of Peace envoy for Gaza, told the Security Council in New York.

He said this would lead to another generation of Gazans living in tents and preclude Israeli security and any viable path to Palestinian statehood. “This is a version of the future that Israelis, Palestinians and the region should all fear and all mobilise to avoid,” he said.

His report to the New York body said that Hamas’ refusal to hand over weapons and relinquish control was the “principal obstacle” to implementation. He also recognised continuing Israeli ceasefire violations and deadly strikes while acknowledging a funding gap.

“Reconstruction financing will not follow where weapons have not been laid down. No investment, no movement, no horizon,” Mladenov told the body, which has recognised the board, although not all major powers have joined.

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said Mladenov’s remarks were an “attempt to create justifications for the occupation’s escalation against the people of the Gaza Strip and for tightening the siege imposed on them.”

Aid groups say humanitarian supplies into Gaza remain constrained despite guarantees of increased assistance under the ceasefire.

Evacuation warnings

Gaza residents say Israeli forces have in recent days resumed issuing evacuation orders ahead of strikes. Witnesses reported at least three such warnings in the past two days, targeting two homes and a tent encampment.

The orders came at night, forcing dozens of families to flee in the darkness, they said.

On Tuesday, the military ordered displaced families at a tent encampment in the densely populated Mawasi area in Khan Younis to leave before striking a tent, witnesses said. It issued a similar warning in the Bureij camp in northern Gaza before bombing a house, according to witnesses.

Israel’s military did not immediately provide comment on the orders telling people to flee. In the past, it has said that the orders aim to prevent civilian harm when targeting terror groups. It has not said why it might have resumed issuing such orders in Gaza.