Board of Peace envoy says full execution of Gaza plan only ‘guarantee’ Oct. 7 won’t recur
Times of Israel · LC · trust 46/100
Nickolay Mladenov, the Gaza envoy of the US-backed Board of Peace, sought to dispel skepticism in Israel about the board’s roadmap for the disarmament of Hamas in the Strip, arguing that the plan’s full implementation is Israel’s only “guarantee” of preventing a repeat of the October 7, 2023, massacre, and that it will be based on verifiable steps, rather than trust of the terror group.
Mladenov’s interview with Channel 12 on Sunday was broadcast just a few hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he categorically rejected the 15-point plan , and, in a U-turn, reportedly halted a small IDF pullout from certain areas in southern Gaza that he had previously approved.
The White House brushed aside those comments as campaign rhetoric ahead of Israel’s October 27 election, while a key Palestinian mediator slammed them.
The roadmap’s goal is “to make sure that Gaza is never again a threat to Israeli security — that what happened before October 7 never happens again,” Mladenov told Channel12, referring to the 2023 Hamas-led onslaught in southern Israel that sparked the war.
“What happened on October 7 will never ever be allowed to happen, as long as we have a full implementation of the Board of Peace’s plan… The option that we are offering today is the only way that we move forward that guarantees that this tragedy will not occur again,” he said.
Mladenov stressed that Israel is not expected to withdraw IDF forces from their current positions until there are tangible steps reflecting Hamas’s disarmament under the roadmap, which the terror group approved last week. The plan would see Hamas hand over control to a Palestinian technocratic body operating under the Board of Peace, called the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, or NCAG.
“Nobody is required to do anything – last of all Israel – before we actually have verified steps on the ground,” Mladenov said. “If there is verified decommissioning of weapons, that they are taken away from the factions, and stored, and ultimately rendered unusable, Israel then withdraws from Gaza.”
????In an exclusive interview with Channel 12 News, (Amit Segal) Board of Peace CEO Nickolay Mladenov addressed the framework for demilitarizing Gaza and the IDF’s gradual withdrawal, shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel had rejected the “15-point… pic.twitter.com/XMKyMycjbk
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He specified that the plan does not require an IDF withdrawal from the Yellow Line, which divided Gaza roughly evenly between zones of Israeli and Hamas control under the October 2025 ceasefire. Israel has since taken control of territory beyond the Yellow Line and now controls more than 60 percent of Gaza. It was unclear if Mladenov was calling on Israel to withdraw to the original Yellow Line, or to remain at the positions it currently holds.
“What we are asking is that the IDF do not position troops further [inside Gaza] from the Yellow Line, because the Yellow Line was agreed under the comprehensive plan,” he added, referring to the October 2025 ceasefire. “So we would like them to stay at those positions, and to make sure that they do not shoot across at people unless they are a real threat to Israeli soldiers…”
“The yellow line, obviously, will move further back once there is decommissioning in Gaza,” he continued. “Once each [geographical] sector is decommissioned, and the weapons are certified — that they have been taken over and stored by the NCAG, the Board of Peace, and rendered unusable — then Israel is required to move back progressively, step by step, in stages, ultimately to the [border] fence in Gaza.”
Mladenov further stressed that Israel will not be restricted in its military responses to “imminent” threats under the Gaza roadmap. “None of the plan that we are preparing limits Israel’s options to react to a threat if it’s imminent and if it’s really endangering its troops.”
Noting that it will take “more than a decade” to destroy all of Hamas’s extensive tunnel network in the Strip, Mladenov argued that working through the Board of Peace could accelerate that process. “With the Board of Peace, together, it can be done much quicker and much more effectively,” he said.
Mladenov also praised Turkey and Qatar — states that have been adversarial to Israel and have hosted Hamas leaders — praising the countries for their role mediating the talks over the roadmap. Concern has grown in Israel that Turkey and Qatar will be part of the International Stabilization Force tasked with securing the enclave during its transitional period.
“My experience over the last eight months is that if it wasn’t for Egypt and for the other mediators, Turkey and Qatar, we would have not been able to get to a position in which Hamas would agree to the roadmap. Their contribution has really, really been critical to this,” he said, adding that there will be a “verification mechanism” to ensure all parties are complying with the roadmap and that the entire process will stop if commitments are not honored.
Mladenov acknowledged the risks involved in implementing the plan, but said its provisions are built around verification rather than trust between the parties.
Asked about widespread mistrust in Israel regarding the entire plan, Mladenov said that many in Israel “think that we have based this whole plan on trust. But the only way that we do this is if we all agree that nothing happens on trust and everything needs to be verified, and everything needs to be done on a step-by-step approach.”
“I’m not building any of this on the basis of trust, and none of us are, and we’re very clear-eyed about the risks going forward,” Mladenov said. “We’re building it on verification, and this is pretty much the basic premise — which I would like both sides to really trust — that because of the verification process, we actually have a chance.”
Also on Sunday, just after Netanyahu rejected the Board of…
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