The top diplomat overseeing the US-brokered Gaza ceasefire has warned that continued violations of the agreement are obstructing the Palestinian committee tasked with postwar governance and reconstruction. Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza for the US-established Board of Peace, spoke at the Munich Security Conference on Friday.
Mladenov said the transitional committee, composed of Palestinian administrators, has met in Egypt but has not yet entered Gaza. He stressed that it cannot function unless Hamas hands over institutional control, and called for more aid and improved security. The ceasefire deal requires Hamas to disarm and an international security force to be deployed, but no visible progress has been made on either front.
Israel has continued strikes in response to alleged truce violations, while Palestinian militants have attacked Israeli forces. Mladenov urged an end to the violations, warning that they are embarrassing the committee and rendering it ineffective. He did not provide a specific timeline but said progress must be swift.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, speaking on the same panel, emphasised the importance of a timeline and insisted that Gaza must not be separated from the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Authority seeks to govern both territories ahead of eventual statehood, a goal to which Israel is adamantly opposed.
The ceasefire, brokered on 10 October, aimed to halt a two-year war. While heavy fighting has subsided, almost daily Israeli fire has continued, with 591 Palestinians killed, according to Gaza health officials. Israel says its strikes are in response to militant attacks, which have killed four Israeli soldiers. Meanwhile, the bodies of 53 unidentified Palestinians and 86 unidentified human remains were laid to rest in a mass burial in Deir Al-Balah on Friday.
