Trump’s Board of Peace claims Gaza plan can end ‘cycle of violence’

The head of President Trump’s Board of Peace said the Gaza peace plan is the only path to ending Middle East violence, despite its rejection by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Both Israelis and the people in Gaza have one shared strong interest and that is to get out of this horrible cycle of violence that has cost so many lives and destruction to both sides,” Nikolay Mladenov told Israeli broadcaster N12.

He emphasized that the plan aimed to ensure that the Gaza Strip would never again pose a threat to Israel and that the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion could never be repeated.

Israel would only be expected to withdraw its troops once the armed factions in the Gaza Strip, including Hamas, have handed over their weapons, Mladenov restated.

At present, Israel is merely being called upon not to advance any further into the Gaza Strip beyond the so-called “yellow line.” Israeli soldiers are also only permitted to open fire in the event of a threat.

Only after a gradual and internationally verified handover of all weapons by Hamas, would Israel be expected to withdraw from the territory “progressively, step by step, in stages, ultimately to the fence of Gaza.”

“If commitments are not being met, the process stops,” Mladenov said, explaining that, at the current rate, it would take more than a decade to destroy all Hamas installations in the territory. “That’s why actually Israel needs the Board of Peace, because with the Board of Peace together, it can be done much quicker and much more effectively.”

Mladenov, the former U.N. special envoy for the Middle East, stressed that the Gaza roadmap was not based on trust, but solely on verification and step-by-step implementation.

The comments came after Netanyahu on Sunday rejected the Board of Peace roadmap for disarming Hamas in the Gaza Strip in return for withdrawal by the Israeli military.

“Israel does not accept the 15-point document,” Netanyahu said during a Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, insisting that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would not withdraw from the war-torn territory until Hamas is disarmed and reiterating his opposition to an independent Palestinian state.

The Board of Peace – which was founded in January 2026 to supervise the territory’s reconstruction and post-war governance under a U.S.-led plan – stated nearly a week ago that it expected Israel to make a complete withdrawal from the coastal territory only after Hamas had been disarmed.

Under the roadmap, Israel and Hamas are supposed to halt the fighting. A Palestinian transitional administration, supported by an international stabilization force, is to take control of administration and security as the Israeli military withdraws.

Citing a representative of the U.S.-led Civil-Military Coordination Centre (CMCC) in southern Israel, the Israeli broadcaster Kan reported that construction work on the first base for the international stabilization force in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, was due to begin in two and a half weeks, regardless of Netanyahu’s comments.

Source: Daily Sabah