Board of Peace envoy meets with Netanyahu on Gaza disarmament deal and
urges a halt to strikes
[August 04, 2026]
By JULIA FRANKEL and SAMY MAGDY
JERUSALEM, Israel (AP) — The Board of Peace official overseeing Gaza’s
postwar transition met on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, according to a statement, in part to discuss a new
disarmament deal the board had reached with the militant Hamas group.
Nikolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza, held “constructive
and detailed” talks with Netanyahu and his team, the Board of Peace said
in a statement.
“The goal is clear and is not in question: the complete decommissioning
of weapons in the Strip and the transition away from rule by the gun to
civilian governance,” it said, referring to the embattled enclave.
Mladenov also pressed Netanyahu to halt Israeli strikes in the Gaza
Strip, according to two people familiar with the meeting. Mladenov and
his team, including senior adviser Aryeh Lightstone, are pressuring
Israel to stop striking Gaza as they push ahead with the agreement to
decommission the weapons held by Hamas.
In a statement Monday, Hamas said the group and various other
Palestinian factions “remain committed to what was agreed regarding the
implementation of the second phase of the ceasefire agreement, including
all parties’ obligations.”
Hamas added it was awaiting “a clear and official response” from
Mladenov and the mediators regarding what was agreed upon.
Meanwhile, in Washington, members of the Board of Peace met with U.S.
congressional staff on Monday to detail their ongoing efforts and to
work with Congress “to advance peace, security, governance, and
reconstruction in Gaza,” according to a brief statement released by the
board.
President Donald Trump had announced the agreement, which is part of a
broader ceasefire deal reached last year, on Thursday. It calls for
Israel to cease its military operations and for Hamas and its allies in
Gaza to halt all militant activity. The agreement also laid out in
general terms what the decommissioning process would look like.
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After the text of the agreement was released, Israel said it had
“serious security concerns” and that it shared those with the United
States. It also ramped up its strikes in Gaza, killing 17 people
overnight Saturday and into Sunday, according to local health
officials. No airstrikes were reported in Gaza on Monday.
Israeli attacks have killed 1,250 people since the ceasefire deal
was reached in October, an agreement that ended major fighting in
the Israel-Hamas war that had raged for two years.
Egypt, Qatar and Turkey — mediators in the Gaza truce negotiations —
denounced the latest Israeli strikes in a statement Monday, saying
that the particular targeting of healthcare facilities, medical
infrastructure and resulting civilian casualties constitutes a
flagrant violation of international law and international
humanitarian law.
The mediators also called on the international community to continue
to pressure Israel to fulfill its end of the deal.
The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked
southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.
Israel's military offensive in Gaza has since killed 73,375 people,
according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Its figures do not distinguish
between civilians and combatants but they are considered generally
reliable by the United Nations and other international
organizations.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Sam Mednick in
Tel Aviv, Israel, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this
report.
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