The Board of Peace’s top Gaza envoy on Tuesday revealed the principles of the disarmament proposal submitted to Hamas earlier this month, urging the international community to pressure the Palestinian terror group to accept the offer in order to prevent another cycle of violence in the Gaza Strip.

“It has been presented to the parties, and the engagement on it is very serious,” Board of Peace High Representative for Gaza Nickolay Mladenov said in remarks at the United Nations Security Council’s monthly session on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Two senior Arab officials familiar with the proposal submitted by Gaza ceasefire mediating countries — the United States, Qatar, Egypt and Turkey — told The Times of Israel that they expect Hamas to respond with a counter-offer in the coming days.

While the officials offered some details on the proposal, which were published in The Times of Israel, Mladenov’s briefing to the Security Council was the first time aspects of the disarmament offer were disclosed on-the-record.

Five principles of disarmament

According to Mladenov, who briefed the council repeatedly during his previous tenures as UN envoy for Iraq and the Middle East peace process, the proposal to Hamas has five principles.

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“First is reciprocity. Decommissioning proceeds in parallel with staged withdrawal (by the IDF). This is fundamental to the credibility of the entire process,” he said.


Board of Peace Gaza High Representative Nickolay Mladenov addresses the UN Security Council on March 24, 2026. (Screen capture/YouTube)

While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly endorsed US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for ending the Gaza war last year, he and other members of his government have expressed a desire to maintain a permanent IDF presence in at least the eastern half of the Strip still controlled by Israel.

Mladenov said that the second principle of the disarmament proposal submitted to Hamas is sequencing. Confirming The Times of Israel’s reporting, he said that “the most dangerous weapons — rockets, heavy munitions, explosive devices, assault rifles owned by arm groups [will be] addressed first [and] Tunnels must be neutralized.”

“Personal weapons are addressed later through a registration and collection process,” he said, ostensibly referring to what the Arab diplomats said would be the buy-back program in which funds and jobs are offered to those who hand over their weapons to the Palestinian police force being formed.

Tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians have already applied to serve in this police force, which will operate under the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), the technocratic government that will transitionally replace Hamas in running the Strip until the Palestinian Authority has completed the reforms necessary to take over.

Police applicants are currently being vetted, Mladenov said, touting Egypt’s agreement to serve as the “lead training partner” for the force, which will be launched in the coming weeks.

As for the third principle of the disarmament plan, Mladenov characterized it as “verification.”

“Compliance (with the program) will need to be monitored and verified,” he said, asserting that the reconstruction of Gaza is strictly contingent on the decommissioning of weapons.


Hamas operatives ostensibly searching for the remains of Israeli hostage Ran Gvili in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, January 7, 2026. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)

“Fourthly, the framework addresses the people, not just the weapons,” the Board of Peace envoy continued. “It includes pathways for individuals currently affiliated with armed groups to re-enter civilian life with dignity, through structured amnesty arrangements and reintegration programs.”

While previous Gaza ceasefire proposals offered immunity to Hamas operatives who give up their weapons, Israel has reportedly ruled out such an exchange for those it says took part in the October 7, 2023, onslaught or other terror activities against Israel.

The fifth principle of the disarmament proposal relates to the timeline, Mladenov said.

“My office has the authority to grant timeline extensions when parties are making good faith efforts,” he explained. “This is a managed process with built-in flexibility because the reality on the ground does not always conform to the timelines on paper.”

During their last meeting with Hamas and other Palestinian factions in Cairo earlier this month, the Gaza mediators stressed that implementing the disarmament proposal “is the only way to ensure that reconstruction in Gaza and Israeli military withdrawal happens,” Mladenov said.

Military control won’t bring security, Mladenov tells Israel

While recognizing that international attention is currently focused on other conflicts, the Board of Peace envoy urged Security Council members to publicly reiterate the importance of Hamas disarmament to ensuring the “rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination” and “to use all means at their disposal to urge Hamas and all Palestinian factions to accept this framework without delay.”

Addressing Israel, Mladenov insisted that Trump’s 20-point plan is “the only pathway that provides Israel with durable security.”


US President Donald Trump stands with other World leaders before a Board of Peace meeting at the US Institute of Peace in Washington, February 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

“Israel has conducted multiple military operations in Gaza over the past two decades. The weapons have always returned. The tunnels have always been rebuilt. The cycle has been repeated over and over again,” Mladenov maintained. “Only verified decommissioning combined, with a new professional police force exercising full control over the use of force and a civilian administration with a stake in stability and focused on reforms eliminates that threat permanently.”

“I say this directly to those in Israel and elsewhere, who argue that military control is the only option. The evidence of the last 20 years says the opposite,” he added.

Aid and housing desperately needed

Turning to current conditions in Gaza, Mladenov said that while aid has increased since a ceasefire was reached in October 2025, the situation there remains dire.

“Essential services are operating at a fraction of pre-war capacity. The healthcare system is in collapse. There is no functioning economy,” he said.

Mladenov called for the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt to remain open after Israel shut it down for almost three weeks after launching the war with Iran.

He revealed that starting Wednesday, the number of people allowed to enter the Strip would gradually ramp up. Israel has been capping the number of people allowed into Gaza at around 50 each day, while some 150 — mainly medical evacuees and their family members — are allowed to leave daily.


Palestinians gather for iftar, the fast-breaking meal during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, amid the rubble of destroyed buildings in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

“The current flow [of aid] is not adequate for the scale of need,” Mladenov said, adding that his office is working with Israel to expand humanitarian assistance.

Housing is also sorely lacking, with hundreds of thousands of Gazans still living in tents, the Board of Peace envoy lamented, urging the acceleration of temporary housing solutions.

He then knocked repeated violations of the ceasefire, without placing blame on either side. “I call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint and to honor the commitments that they have made.”

“If this process fails, if the current status quo is allowed to become permanent, the consequences will be devastating. A divided Gaza, with Hamas maintaining military and administrative control over two million people in roughly 50% of Gaza’s territory, means those people continue to live in rubble, dependent on humanitarian aid, with no prospect for reconstruction,” Mladenov warned.

“It means a generation of children growing up in conditions that breed despair and radicalization, and ultimately, it means the end of any credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.”