Board of Peace reverses Gaza disarmament roadmap
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- The Trump Gaza Board of Peace issued a Monday statement rewriting its week-old disarmament roadmap to match Israeli demands, declaring that "the withdrawal of the IDF beyond the Yellow Line will take place only once decommissioning is complete" — explicitly covering light weapons, heavy weapons, and tunnels alike.
- The original roadmap stated that Hamas's decommissioning of heavy weapons, arms depots, production facilities, and tunnels "shall be linked to an Israeli withdrawal, in phases," with Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov saying on Thursday that withdrawal must "move in lockstep with decommissioning."
- Israel launched attacks across Gaza on Sunday killing at least 18 Palestinians — the largest daily toll in weeks — and Energy Minister Eli Cohen told Army Radio there was "no deal" for Israel to halt attacks, in defiance of the agreement's call to honor ceasefire commitments "without delay."
- Hamas reaffirmed its commitment to the original agreement and called for "a clear and official response" from Mladenov clarifying what was actually agreed upon.
- Israel now controls 60-70% of Gaza, with over 2 million inhabitants crammed into an area largely reduced to rubble, having gradually pushed beyond the original ceasefire line over the ten months since October 2025.
- ECFR analyst Muhammad Shehada said the Board of Peace was "betraying the very agreement they just made" and "taking Netanyahu's side fully," while IMEU's Tariq Kenney-Shawa called it "the administrative and fundraising arm of Israel's occupation of Gaza."
- Since the October 2025 ceasefire, Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,200 Palestinians, lifting the overall death toll above 73,000, with July the deadliest month of the year at 150+ killed.
Why it matters: The Board of Peace's reversal — issued five days after its envoy publicly insisted withdrawal must move "in lockstep" with disarmament — effectively rewards Israeli escalation and dismantles the conditional structure linking Palestinian disarmament to an Israeli pullback. With Israel already controlling 60-70% of Gaza and killing more than 150 Palestinians per month, the rewritten framework eliminates the leverage Trump himself had touted as a "massive diplomatic breakthrough" one week earlier.
