Board of Peace Gaza envoy Nickolay Mladenov on Sunday lamented the past two days of Israeli strikes in Gaza that “have killed civilians and destroyed medical supplies that people depend on,” days after the body reached a disarmament deal with Hamas that would also see Israel withdraw from the Strip.

Gaza medics said Israeli strikes Saturday overnight and into Sunday evening killed at least 17 people, including children.

In a post on X, Mladenov said the strikes came “after intense efforts by the Board of Peace and the mediators (Egypt, Turkiye, Qatar and the US) to bring the Palestinian factions in Gaza to agree to a Roadmap on the full implementation of President Trump’s plan, to hand over civilian governance and to decommission their weapons.”

He added that his team was “working around the clock with the parties, the mediators, and regional partners to de-escalate and create the space for the full implementation of the president’s plan. Achieving a lasting peace is hard, but achievable if everyone makes their best efforts.”

The Board of Peace had hoped that Hamas’s approval of its disarmament plan on Thursday after months of negotiations would immediately trigger its implementation.

However, Israel has indicated that it does not approve of the plan’s terms, and will not cooperate with it, leaving its implementation in question.

The deal would see Hamas gradually hand over its weapons to a new Palestinian administration in Gaza, but the arms would remain in the territory. It also mandates Israel to begin withdrawing from land it holds in Gaza before Hamas has fully disarmed.

But an Israeli official said Sunday that Jerusalem had shared “serious security concerns” with the White House regarding the proposed deal. US President Donald Trump had previously claimed that Israel was “very happy” with the deal.

Doron Spielman, spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office told The Associated Press that Israel’s intelligence assessment was that Hamas remains committed to rebuilding its military rather than genuinely demilitarizing. He said the Israeli military would not withdraw from Gaza — where it controls more than 60% of the territory — before Hamas disarms.

“Our assessment is that if we redeploy before Hamas is truly disarmed, it will quickly expand its presence throughout Gaza, rebuild its terrorist infrastructure, once again threaten Israeli communities, and seek to carry out another October 7-style attack,” he said, referring to the deadly Hamas terror attack on Israel in 2023 that triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.

“Disarming means physically giving up the weapons. Nothing less,” Spielman said.

A statement issued by........

© The Times of Israel