Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted to former UN Envoy Nickolay Mladenov, who is set to become the director of the Board of Peace for the Gaza Strip, that “Hamas must be disarmed and the Gaza Strip must be demilitarized in accordance with the 20-point plan of US President Donald Trump.”
Netanyahu made these comments in a meeting on Thursday with Mladenov, a day before the official met on Friday with Palestinian Authority official Hussein al-Sheikh in Ramallah, Reuters reported.
The two men discussed “the situation in the Gaza Strip, ways to move to the second phase, and mechanisms for implementing (Trump’s) plan,” Sheikh said.
Trump plans to establish the Board of Peace in Gaza, which will oversee the technocratic Palestinian government.
This government will be selected by Palestinians and approved by Israel after a vetting process from a submitted list, while the members of the board will be chosen by Trump.
Israel pushes to keep Turkey away from Gaza Board of Peace
In recent weeks, Israel has pushed to keep Turkish representatives away from the board, with Trump reluctant to allow this veto by the Israeli government.
Some officials in the Trump administration believe Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan should be part of the peace council, in part because Turkey – alongside Egypt and Qatar – is a guarantor of the agreement signed with Hamas.
Several sources told The Jerusalem Post that, for now, a final decision on the composition of the Board of Peace has not yet been made. Trump is expected to reveal the full list sometime this month.
Amichai Stein and Reuters contributed to this report.