Serdar Dincel
13 May 2026•Update: 14 May 2026
Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative of the Board of Peace overseeing the US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza, said Wednesday that “we are not asking Hamas to disappear as a political movement.”
Speaking at a news conference in Jerusalem, Mladenov repeated demands for Hamas and other armed groups to disarm, describing the issue as “not negotiable.”
"You cannot build a future with armed groups running the streets, hiding in tunnels and stockpiling weapons. You cannot deliver reconstruction with militias on every corner," he said.
Hamas expressed surprise over the remarks, calling for “the immediate empowerment of the National Committee for Gaza Administration and allowing it to enter the Strip, assume its full responsibilities, and be provided with all the necessary requirements for its work.”
The group's spokesperson, Hazem Qassem, affirmed that it had taken “all the required steps to hand over the various areas of governance and administration in the Strip to the national committee.”
In further remarks at the news conference, Mladenov said that seven months after the ceasefire took effect in October 2025, “the door to the future of Gaza is still closed."
“It is not what the Palestinians were promised and it is not what they deserve. And it is not giving Israel the security to move forward, as the Israeli people also want,” he added.
“We have a ceasefire. It is holding. It is not perfect. It is far from perfect.
"There are violations every day, and some of them are very serious,” he said, in remarks that came as the Israeli army continues daily violations of the truce.
The Board of Peace is an 11-member non-political Palestinian technocratic body formed in January to manage civilian affairs and reconstruction in the Gaza Strip on the initiative of US President Donald Trump as part of efforts to reach a peaceful settlement in Gaza.
Hamas has repeatedly announced that it has completed the logistical and administrative measures required to transfer civil administration duties to the committee, calling for serious pressure on Israel to facilitate its entry into Gaza and allow it to begin operations.
Since the ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10, 2025, Israeli attacks and gunfire have killed around 856 Palestinians and injured 2,463 others, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The ceasefire agreement followed two years of genocide in Gaza launched by Israel in October 2023. The Israeli offensive later continued in different forms, killing more than 72,000 Palestinians, injuring over 172,000 and devastating around 90% of civilian infrastructure in Gaza.
