Talks between Hamas and the Board of Peace (BoP), part of the US-led international initiative to stabilize Gaza, have reportedly stalled. The terrorist organization continues to staunchly reject total disarmament, a key stipulation of the peace plan for the territory. Palestinian sources speaking to Israel’s KAN News said that negotiations between Hamas’s delegation and the BoP’s delegation, led by High Representative for Gaza Nickolay Mladenov, came to an impasse this week after the two parties met in Cairo.
Mladenov and his entourage later traveled to Israel to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on May 5. “No one was surprised six months ago, and no one is surprised today that Hamas refuses to disarm… We are working in coordination with the Board of Peace and our American allies to plan our next steps in light of Hamas’s refusal,” a source “familiar with the details” of the meeting told Israel’s i24 News reporter Guy Azriel.
An Israeli security source also told KAN News that Israel understands “that Hamas is doing everything to evade [disarmament]. If it does not disarm itself, the IDF will return to fighting in Gaza in the near future to complete the mission.”
Israel has made it clear to the BoP that it will not compromise on security and withdraw before Hamas’s disarmament. Hamas has repeatedly demanded that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) pull back from the “Yellow Line” — which divides Hamas-and Israeli-controlled territory in Gaza — before any disarmament negotiations.
While efforts to bridge the gaps in Hamas’s and Israel’s positions have stagnated, Palestinian terrorists continued to violate the ceasefire, according to the IDF. Between April 21 and May 5, the Israeli military reported 19 ceasefire violations, including:
- On April 21, the IDF said that it eliminated armed Palestinian Islamic Jihad members who were “operating in the southern Gaza Strip, in a manner that posed a threat to the forces deployed in the area.”
- Also on April 21, the IDF stated that it had eliminated a “terrorist near the Yellow Line who posed a threat to IDF forces operating in the southern Gaza Strip.” Later, Israeli intelligence identified the individual as “Khamis Muhammad Khamis Qatats, who had taken part in the October 7, 2023, massacre at Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel.”
- On April 22, the IDF said that it eliminated two terrorists in two separate incidents. In one event, members of a “Northern Brigade in the northern Gaza Strip identified a terrorist operating in the Yellow Line area who approached the forces in a manner that posed an immediate threat to them.” The forces eliminated the operative. In southern Gaza, the IDF said that “forces of the ‘Negev’ Brigade (12) eliminated a terrorist who crossed the Yellow Line and approached the forces in a manner that posed an immediate threat to them.”
- Also on April 22, the IDF reported that it had eliminated two sets of armed Hamas militants, one “operating in northern Gaza Strip, near IDF forces” and another “transporting weapons” in southern Gaza.
- On April 23, the IDF said that it had “attacked and eliminated a Hamas terrorist cell that was planning to carry out attacks against IDF forces operating in central Gaza in the immediate future.” Later, it was assessed that several known Hamas members were killed in the strikes, including Hazem Rami Ali Aidi, who commanded a cell that attacked Israel during the October 7 attacks, Ibrahim Mansour, a Hamas platoon commander, and Maher Tantawi, a Hamas intelligence operative.
- On April 24, the IDF said it had “eliminated armed” Hamas members posing a threat to soldiers operating in northern Gaza.
- On April 25, in a similar incident, the IDF stated that it had eliminated “armed terrorists who were operating to advance terror plots in the southern Gaza Strip” against IDF troops.
- On April 28, the IDF reported that it eliminated Ahmed Abd al Rahman Shambari, the head of operations in Hamas’s military intelligence headquarters, who was “responsible for compiling operational situation pictures for the entire Gaza Strip” and had posed an immediate threat to IDF soldiers.
- On April 29, the IDF said that “combat team forces of the Negev Brigade (12), operating in [the] southern Gaza Strip, identified a terrorist who crossed the yellow line and approached the forces in a manner that posed an immediate threat to them.” The individual was killed.
- On April 30, the IDF stated that it struck and eliminated Ibrahim Abu Dhakar, a Hamas militant who had planned to carry out a terror attack against” IDF forces in Gaza.
- On May 2, the IDF reported that in “several different incidents,” for which the tracking team logged two separate violations, “forces of the Gaza Division (143) operating in [the] southern Gaza Strip identified … four terrorists who crossed the yellow line and approached the forces in a manner that posed an immediate threat.” Three individuals were killed in subsequent Israeli strikes, and the IDF said that “a hit was identified on an additional terrorist” without confirming their death.
- On May 4, the IDF stated that troops had struck two terrorists, one in northern Gaza and one in southern Gaza, who had approached soldiers “in a manner that posed an immediate threat.” Both individuals were eliminated.
- In an additional incident on May 4, the IDF said that it had “struck … in the center of the Gaza Strip and eliminated Ans Muhammad Ibrahim Hamed,” a Hamas commander in the elite Nukhba forces who had raided the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, where some 378 people were murdered.
- Finally, on May 4 and 5, in two separate incidents, the IDF struck both an “armed terrorist squad from the Hamas terror organization while they were operating in the northern Gaza strip” and “five terrorists” who were approaching the Yellow Line in northern Gaza. Between both strikes, the IDF reported that “most of the terrorists were eliminated, with additional hits identified.”
