Board of Peace meetings held in Cyprus as mediators push to get Gaza out of regional backseat

Despite being billed as a “reset” to the Gaza peace process, no major shifts emerged from the Board of Peace meetings convened in Cyprus last week. But the gathering in Larnaca — which brought together board officials and Gaza’s new technocratic governing committee, as well as representatives of the Tony Blair Institute — comes as mediators make a push to maintain momentum in the faltering process to convert Gaza’s tenuous truce into a more lasting peace. Two sources informed of ongoing talks across several tracks told Mada Masr that Gaza has taken a backseat in the United States’ agenda in the region over recent months. Eyes in Washington have been fixed instead on the US’s own conflict with Iran and on Israel’s aggression against Lebanon, according to the sources. And while the Board of Peace remains the only international scheme nominally dedicated to establishing stability in Gaza, international buy-in is all but absent, former European Union representative to Palestine, Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, stressed in comments to Mada Masr. As a result, there are few signs of progress since US President Donald Trump hailed the arrival of the second phase of the ceasefire at the beginning of the year. Reconstruction is stalled, the international stabilization force set to support the board in carrying out its mandate is yet to be formed, and Israel continues to block the entry of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza into the strip. A process to reach a viable formula on Hamas’s demilitarization is the only thing that has crept haltingly forward. But significant gains on that front are roadblocked by Israel’s ongoing occupation and siege of the coastal enclave, with Hamas holding firm that it will not transfer its weapons to a third party before Israel completes its commitments under the ceasefire: adhering to the stipulated withdrawal plan and allowing the delivery of a full complement of aid supplies into the strip. Palestinians in Gaza are left, in the meantime, with limited resources and infrastructure that has been decimated by the war. As temperatures rise this summer, people in the strip endure sweltering days that leave the most vulnerable at risk under a ceasefire that has slowed the pace of attacks but failed to put a stop to the pervasive threat of airstrikes and troop advances — whether by Israel or the militias it backs — encroaching onto peoples’ homes and lands. And instead of adhering to the “yellow line” that demarcated the first stage of Israel’s phased withdrawal, its military has instead expanded troops’ occupation of the strip, enforcing displacement from new regions of eastern Gaza to claim as much as 70 percent of the strip’s area. One of the sources, an Egyptian Foreign Ministry official, expressed  to Mada Masr the hope that as the talks began in Larnaca on Tuesday and “with the settlement of the Iran situation and the deal that Trump secured on Lebanon with Israel, he might be willing to restart the process for Gaza.” But the same official acknowledged that “things have been very slow and that the slower things get, the more endangered this already fragile ceasefire becomes.” *** The US unilaterally hailed the advent of the ceasefire’s “Phase Two” in January, with envoy Steve Witkoff, describing the step as “moving from ceasefire to demilitarization, technocratic governance, and reconstruction.” But of these agenda items, only a process for demilitarization has crept haltingly forward in the ensuing months between the Board of Peace’s director-general for Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, and the Palestinian factions. An exchange since April has seen Hamas engage, via mediators, with Mladenov to improve the terms of the group’s planned disarmament in a plan put forward by Mladenov. Hamas initially rejected a stipulation under the roadmap that would have seen the movement’s weapons placed under the supervision of the International Stabilization Force , a mission to be deployed in the strip under the board’s plan. Instead, Hamas suggested in a counter-proposal that its arms be placed under Palestinian custody, with the weapons’ inventory transferred, under the supervision of Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators, to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, a Hamas source and a source informed of the negotiations told Mada Masr at the time . Mladenov agreed to the amendment regarding the weapons’ custody, the Hamas source said . But the same source, as well as the Foreign Ministry official said that there is still a long way to go before the disarmament plan could be considered viable. “There are still big gaps,” said the Foreign Ministry official. “Mladenov’s language is very vague and implicitly indicates that the ultimate supervision on the arms should be to his office and the Board of Peace,” said the official, adding, “Hamas cannot agree to this.” The same official noted that there is a dispute over the type of weapons that should be inventoried and transferred, since “Hamas is willing to put aside the missiles and launchers but not the defensive arms, especially in view of the continued Israeli violations of the ceasefire terms.” The Hamas source confirmed to Mada Masr that the type of weapons to be surrendered remains in question. While Mladenov’s revised draft accepted some amendments, the source said, it also introduced a detailed and expansive list of weapons to be surrendered, from heavy arms and vehicles down to personal handguns, military uniforms and training facilities — an amendment that the source said at the time the factions had not rejected outright, but that remains contentious and under discussion. “It is a process,” said the Foreign Ministry source, acknowledging that “[the] original proposal was bad, and the amendments introduced are not enough,” but noting that Egypt believes “Hamas and the other factions should continue engaging Mladenov.” *** Moreover, Hamas has demands before disarmament takes place, as per stipulations in the peace plan, which are yet to be honoured by Israel. Aid agencies have pointed to Israel’s continued blockade of the strip, which limits the amount of aid including construction materials from reaching Palestinians, as a key factor in leaving vulnerable communities exposed to the weather in temporary shelters. Medics noted an increasing number of heat-related health complications in recent weeks, especially among children. Israel is yet to meet the threshold of aid delivery to the strip that it committed to under the ceasefire. Israeli forces were also expected to withdraw and remain, during the first phase of the ceasefire that began in October, 2025, within a designated “yellow zone” along Gaza’s eastern edge, covering around 53 percent of the strip. They have, instead, expanded the area of the strip they are occupying. Aid workers told Reuters that Israeli military maps distributed to aid agencies in March showed the creation of a new “orange zone” that increased the area under Israeli control by around 11 percent of Gaza’s territory. Israeli-backed militias continue to carry out raids within this new zone, forcing people out of their homes under Israeli evacuation orders. Israel has also continued to carry out airstrikes in the strip, killing over 1,000 people since the ceasefire began in October, 2025 and assassinating members of Hamas’s military wing, including Qassam Brigades General Commander Ezz Eddin al-Haddad. A second Hamas source told Mada Masr at the time that Israel’s assassination policy against the movement’s leadership “aims to pressure them into accepting disarmament without guarantees.” The first Hamas source told Mada Masr in April when the group met with Mladenov in Cairo that they viewed disarmament as “unrealistic” if it calls on the group to abandon its weapons while Israeli violations of the ceasefire are ongoing and while Israel has failed to uphold its commitments of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, particularly the withdrawal from Gaza and the lifting of the blockade. According to a former Egyptian diplomat informed on the consultations, Israel is not moving forward on any of these points. Both the diplomat and the Foreign Ministry official were highly skeptical about the possibility of progress on withdrawal in the coming weeks, given that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now focused on the domestic elections due to take place in October. The former diplomat said that, given Israel’s sense that it was excluded from Washington’s negotiations on Iran and has not decisively lessened Hezbollah’s capacity, “I cannot see the deal that will get Netanyahu to be making territorial concessions on the occupation of Gaza.” “Netanyahu’s biggest claim to fame today is that he established security corridors in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria — with the freedom of action granted either de facto or de jure. It is hard to see him making concessions before the elections,” they added. The National Committee for the Administration of Gaza ’s entrance to the strip is also a key condition for Hamas’s disarmament, with both sources noting that Israel is still blocking the committee’s entry to the strip. The former Egyptian diplomat confirmed that the issue of the national committee was on the agenda at Larnaca, adding that “the trouble with the committee is essentially Israel-related because it is Israel that has been declining entry into, and operation from, Gaza.” “Cairo is committed to keep working to get this committee through,” added the Foreign Ministry source, but they likewise expressed doubt that Israel would be willing to change its position without significant pressure from Trump. “If Trump will continue to pressure Netanyahu on Iran, and to an extent on Lebanon, it is hard to see that he would do the same with Gaza,” the source said. The committee itself acknowledged the delay to its activation after its gathering with Board of Peace representatives in Larnaca last week, saying in a statement that it would “assume its responsibilities once the right conditions are met.” Acknowledging the fragility of the ceasefire, the Foreign Ministry source said that “the best strategy is to keep the parties engaged and to try to move things forward even if in small steps.” Egyptian domestic outlets reported that Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad and his Turkish counterpart, Ibrahim Kalin, met Hama s’s Khaled Meshaal and Khalil al-Hayya in Cairo this weekend as part of efforts to advance implementation of the plan, with the Hamas officials reportedly affirming their support for the implementation of Trump’s stalled Gaza peace plan and for resolving files obstructing its execution. Hamas released a statement Monday reiterating its commitment to handing governance of Gaza over to the national committee and dissolving its emergency governance body. The post Board of Peace meetings held in Cyprus as mediators push to get Gaza out of regional backseat first appeared on Mada Masr .