President Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace” is demanding that Hamas finalize an agreement on its disarmament by the end of this week, The New York Times reported on Monday, as Israel continues launching attacks across Gaza in violation of the October ceasefire deal.
The report said that the demands were delivered to Hamas last month by Nickolay Mladenov, a Bulgarian politician who was named the director of the board, which is ultimately under the control of President Trump. The demands require Hamas to eventually give up virtually all of its weapons and share maps of its tunnel network.
Mladenov made a vague post on X on Friday where he appeared to suggest there would be grave consequences for Hamas if it didn’t agree. “He who will not cross the river will drown in the sea,” he wrote.
For its part, Hamas has said that it won’t discuss disarmament until Israel fulfills its obligations under the ceasefire deal that was signed in October 2025. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, Israeli attacks have killed at least 723 Palestinians and wounded 1,990 since the deal was signed.
“Dealing with the weapons file in this rude manner is a scandalous effort by the occupation to continue killing and exterminating at the expense of our people,” the spokesman for Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, said on Sunday.
Besides the IDF attacking Palestinians, Israel has also backed anti-Hamas militias and gangs, which include members with ties to ISIS. Israel has also not allowed 600 aid trucks to enter Gaza each day, which was another requirement of the ceasefire deal, and the Times report said that the board was pressing Israel to allow more trucks into the Strip.
The Times report said that if Hamas agrees to the demand, the US and Israel will allow reconstruction to take place in Gaza, and the IDF troops who currently occupy more than 50% of the Strip would pull back. However, since the ceasefire deal was signed, the messaging from the Israeli government has been that the IDF will never leave Gaza and may eventually establish Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territory.
Board members and Hamas officials are expected to hold talks in Cairo on Tuesday. It doesn’t appear that the Trump administration is very focused on Gaza amid the US-Israeli war against Iran, which has been raging for more than a month. The US and Israel launched the war less than two weeks after Trump held the first “Board of Peace” summit in Washington, DC.
