The top diplomat from the Board of Peace has blamed Hamas for the stalled ceasefire, but critics argue the US-backed board’s lack of balance in enforcing the truce risks a return to war. The high representative for Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, told the UN Security Council on Thursday that Hamas was the principal obstacle to continued implementation because it refused to accept verified decommissioning, give up coercive control and permit a genuine civilian transition. Hamas rejected the accusations. Its spokesman Hazem Qassem said the report reflected continued adoption of the Israeli position and served as an attempt to justify further Israeli escalation. Critics of the Board of Peace, launched by Donald Trump in January, said the report gave a misleading and one-sided account of the ceasefire, in which Israel has been the main violator. Israeli forces have continued airstrikes on Gaza. They have also advanced from the October ceasefire line, expanding direct control from the agreed 53 percent to at least 60 percent, and have regularly fired at Palestinians approaching within a few hundred metres of the shifting line. More than 850 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire was declared in October. Israel has also fallen short of its obligation to allow 600 trucks of humanitarian supplies daily and has refused to ease restrictions on dual-use items, blocking aid agencies from bringing in basic supplies such as water pipes or heavy machinery to clear rubble. Israel was not directly criticised in the report, only by implication in references to all parties. Critics said that by placing blame solely on Hamas, the report could lend legitimacy to Benjamin Netanyahu to resume fighting. Israel never fulfilled any of its obligations under phase one of the deal, so why would anyone trust they would live up to phase two, especially once the weapons are gone, said Muhammad Shehada, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Successive versions of the roadmap were presented to Hamas and other Palestinian factions in March and April. The April version proposed an implementation verification committee to oversee disarmament while ensuring Israel took reciprocal steps. The documents said inventory and collection of weapons would be implemented gradually in phases, with heavy weapons handed in within 90 days, though the definition of heavy included assault rifles. The April version said disarmament would be monitored by multilateral bodies but added that the process would be under Palestinian leadership. Israeli analyst Gershon Baskin welcomed the roadmap but criticised the characterisation of the stalemate that placed sole blame on Hamas. He said the group had indicated willingness to begin disarmament in parallel with unfulfilled Israeli commitments. In his report Mladenov accused Hamas of tightening its grip on the 40 percent of Gaza still under its control. However Hamas has been calling since February for the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, a panel of 12 Palestinian technocrats created by the Board of Peace in January, to be allowed into the territory. Under the plan the committee is supposed to oversee disarmament, yet Israel has refused to allow members to enter from Egypt. Baskin said the Israeli position was that allowing the committee in would create a situation like Lebanon where real power would remain with armed groups.
