Members of a UN-sanctioned, Palestinian committee appointed in January to run Gaza's day-to-day affairs are frustrated by their idleness and inaction, with Israel continuing to bar them from entering the enclave, sources familiar with the matter said.
They said at least four of the committee's 13 members had offered their resignation to protest against the lack of concrete steps allowing the body to begin its task under US President Donald Trump's peace plan for Gaza, where a Washington-mediated ceasefire paused the two-year war.
The sources declined to name the four members. Nickolay Mladenov, the Bulgarian politician who acts as the lead envoy of the Board of Peace – a body created by the US leader to oversee postwar Gaza – rejected the resignations, urging the four members to stay on.
Committee members have since January been based in Cairo, waiting for Israel to allow them to cross into Gaza. However, the sources say Israel has made their entry conditional on Hamas disarming. The Israeli government is also seeking clarification on the committee's mandate and claims some members have sympathised with Hamas in the past.
Moving ahead with Mr Trump's Gaza peace plan has become less of a priority for Washington since the Iran war broke out on February 28, with attempts to end the conflict and deal with its impact on the global economy preoccupying much of the world.
“Many of the committee members are losing hope in ever entering Gaza and beginning work,” one of the sources said. “They, like other Palestinians, feel they're the legitimate owners of the land of Gaza yet they are treated like no more than employees, without authority or clear brief.”
The first stage of the Trump plan brought about a ceasefire in October after two years of war in Gaza. Hamas released hostages in exchange for the freedom of hundreds of Palestinians who had been detained in Israeli jails.
Under the ceasefire's terms, Israel also withdrew behind a “yellow line” that left its military in control of more than 50 per cent of Gaza. The deal also allowed humanitarian aid to enter, although the UN and international aid agencies say the enclave's estimated two million residents need much more than what has been coming in.
The later phases of the plan provide for the formation of an “International Stabilisation Force” to maintain security in Gaza, as well as Hamas's disarmament, the reconstruction of the strip and the withdrawal of Israel.
However, despite the current inaction on implementing the plan, Mr Mladenov said this week that he was “fairly optimistic” a plan for the disarmament of Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza can be agreed. However, he warned that it would take some time.
“We've had some very serious discussions with Hamas over the last few weeks, they're not easy,” he told Reuters in Brussels. “I'm fairly optimistic that we will be able to come up with an arrangement that works for all sides and, most importantly, works for the people in Gaza.
“Work was under way on an implementation plan that would include disarmament, new governance in Gaza and provisions for an Israeli withdrawal, he added.
“It obviously will take time but we're trying to make sure that the arrangements for the implementation of the plan are agreed to as quickly as possible,” said Mr Mladenov, who is a former UN Middle East envoy.
Asked when an agreement could be reached on implementation, he said: “We have a matter of days, maximum a couple of weeks, that is my assessment, because otherwise we will lose the momentum of what we have and then every decision will become even more difficult”.
The Gaza war was sparked by a deadly, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people. The assailants also took about 250 people hostage, all of whom have been released either dead or alive.
More than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and more than twice as many have been injured. The war has also left much of Gaza's built-up areas in ruin and displaced most of the strip's residents, more than once in many cases.
The war gave rise to accusations of Israel committing genocide and deliberately starving Palestinians. Israel denies the charges.
