When will Israel fulfill its ceasefire obligations? "Netanyahu keeps getting away with constantly changing the goal posts" Daoud Kuttab in The Arab News

Displaced Palestinians gather to collect water at a tent camp in Gaza City, August 9, 2026. (REUTERS)

Daoud Kuttab

August 09, 2026

 

The badly violated Gaza ceasefire might be getting further attention from the US-led Board of Peace.

Last September, President Donald Trump presented Arab and Muslim leaders at the UN with a 20-point, multiphase plan for Gaza. It was accepted by all parties, including Israel and Hamas, and received UN backing from a binding Security Council resolution.

That is the point at which the plan stopped being respected. Or, to be fair, stopped being respected by one of the parties, Israel, which has continued shooting and occupying more land, while the other party, the Palestinian resistance, has become a lame duck.

But suddenly, while the world was focused on the war between the US and Iran and the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the beleaguered Gaza Strip recently got what appeared to be some good news.

Hamas, headed by newly elected leader Khalil Al-Hayya, agreed on July 31 to a detailed Board of Peace road map for the future. However, even the acceptance of a made-for-Israel plan, which was seen and not rejected by the Israeli authorities, is now opposed by Tel Aviv.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing entourage had expected Hamas to reject the plan. On Sunday, Netanyahu himself openly dismissed it, saying that Israeli forces “would not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed.” The Israelis are now looking for ways to once again shift the goalposts, with the expectation that Hamas will not accept any further compromise.

The BBC has reported that at least 13 people, including several children, have been killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza since Hamas agreed to disarm. Criticism followed from the US-appointed envoy Nickolay Mladenov, director general of the Board of Peace, who wrote on X: “Two days of strikes across Gaza have killed civilians and destroyed medical supplies.”

The board’s latest 15-point sequencing plan commits Hamas, along with other armed factions and militias, to total disarmament in return for a gradual, reciprocal Israeli withdrawal from 60 percent of the Gaza Strip and the governing of Gaza by a Palestinian technocratic committee chosen by Washington.

Trump publicly approved the plan, describing it as “a critical step toward Gaza finally being governed by a new Palestinian government.” In a message posted on Truth Social, he said that “the International Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbors.”

This time, Israel will not be able to flout the ceasefire since it will be monitored by an international force... READ MORE  https://www.arabnews.com/node/2654015 

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