Israel Strikes Gaza After Hamas Arms Deal as Board of Peace Backtracks
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- Hamas formally committed for the first time to "an actionable plan for relinquishing all its weapons," announced by Trump on Thursday, but conditioned implementation on Israel fulfilling October 2025 agreement obligations including a permanent end to attacks, full withdrawal, reconstruction, and Palestinian self-determination.
- Israeli airstrikes killed at least 18 Palestinians on August 2, 2026, per the Gaza Health Ministry, including a pregnant woman, her husband, and their five-year-old son at the Al-Sousi Tower in Gaza City, where an analyst identified the munition remnants as likely a suicide drone.
- Israel struck a WHO-coordinated dialysis medication warehouse near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah on Saturday — destroying the hospital's main supply stockpile per director Raed Hussein — and killed a bridegroom preparing his wedding tent on Al-Thawra street the next day.
- Mediators Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey issued their first joint statement on Monday condemning the attacks as "a flagrant violation of international law and international humanitarian law," denouncing Israel's targeting of healthcare facilities.
- The Board of Peace, led by High Representative Nickolay Mladenov, publicly reversed the deal's sequencing after meeting Netanyahu, stating IDF withdrawal beyond the Yellow Line would occur only after Hamas fully decommissioned light weapons, heavy weapons, and tunnels.
- Netanyahu flatly rejected the agreement in his first public comments on Tuesday, aligning with Israeli officials who had already rejected it through press leaks as the weekend assault began.
Why it matters: The Board of Peace's reversal effectively rewrote the terms after Hamas had already committed, giving Israel political cover to continue operations while reframing Hamas as the obstacle. With mediators Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey formally condemning strikes on medical infrastructure, the diplomatic framework collapsed at the moment a deal was supposed to take hold — leaving the October 2025 agreement functionally dead.
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