Trump's 'Board of Peace' Gaza envoy urges Hamas to disarm 'without delay'

The Gaza envoy for Donald Trump’s new “Board of Peace” initiative called on UN Security Council members to pressure the militant group Hamas to disarm as part of a ceasefire aimed at ending over two years of conflict.

“I ask the council members to use all means at their disposal to urge Hamas and all Palestinian factions to accept this framework without delay,” said Nickolay Mladenov, a veteran diplomat appointed the board’s high representative for Gaza.

“Every hour, every day wasted carries a human cost and further erodes the process for credible and lasting peace,” he told a Security Council meeting on the Palestinian conflict.

Trump’s administration, alongside Qatar and Egypt, negotiated a ceasefire in October to halt two years of devastating war in Gaza.

In January, Washington announced it was entering the second phase of the peace plan, which calls for the disarmament of Hamas, whose unprecedented 7 October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the massive offensive. The plan also envisages a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces and the deployment of an international stabilising force.

Despite reduced violence, Israeli strikes have continued at times, resulting in hundreds of deaths since the ceasefire, while Hamas has refused to disarm under conditions it says are imposed by Israel.

“The laying down of arms by militant groups would represent a decisive break from cycles of violence that have defined life in Gaza for decades,” Mladenov said.

Trump’s Board of Peace has promised a wave of reconstruction and investment aid for Gaza in the event of a lasting truce.

The war in Gaza was triggered by the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, which killed 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Since then, at least 72,000 people have died in Gaza during Israeli military operations, according to the territory’s health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

Also at the meeting, Ramiz Alakbarov, deputy special coordinator for the UN Resident Coordinator Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, warned of a “heightened level of violence in the West Bank".

Violence between Israeli settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank risks “further displacing Palestinian communities", he said.