Destroying Gaza’s tunnels “will take more than a decade” at the current rate, he said, adding that the board was looking at contracting machinery and firms to do the work faster.
The Israel Defense Forces will not be required to pull back from its current positions in Gaza until the disarmament of the Hamas terrorist group is verified, Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative for the Strip, said in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
“Nobody is required to do anything,” Mladenov told Channel 12‘s Amit Segal, adding that the IDF would only withdraw after weapons are taken from terrorist groups, stored and “ultimately rendered unusable.”
The interview aired hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Jerusalem rejects the 15-point roadmap announced by the Board of Peace on July 30.
The disarmament roadmap does not require the IDF to pull back from the Yellow Line at this stage, Mladenov said, only that soldiers hold their positions and not fire across the line unless there is a “real threat” to them.
The ceasefire line would move back “sector by sector in geographical terms” as weapons in each area are certified as stored and rendered unusable by the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, which operates under the Board of Peace.
Destroying Gaza’s tunnels “will take more than a decade” at the current rate, he said, adding that the board was looking at contracting machinery and firms to do the work faster.
So-called “personal weapons” held by Gazan terrorists, including Kalashnikov rifles, are “fully covered in the framework,” Mladenov said.
Asked about Israeli concerns over the involvement of Turkey and Qatar, Mladenov said the mediators had been critical to securing Hamas’s agreement to the roadmap. He added that verification would be American-led, involving the International Stabilization Force and the U.S. military.
The plan rests on verification rather than trust, and nothing in it limits Jerusalem’s ability to respond to an imminent threat, he said.
“The roadmap is a document between the Board of Peace, led by U.S. President Trump, and Hamas,” Mladenov said. “Its goal is to make sure that Gaza is never again a threat to Israeli security.”
* Dismantling the tunnels will take ten years
* Israel will not need to withdraw at the current stage
* Personal weapons? Not Kalashnikovs and not in large quantities@nmladenov , the man responsible for the future of Gaza, attempts to alleviate concerns in Israel in an exclusive… pic.twitter.com/Pyio88NrT2— Amit Segal (@AmitSegal)August 9, 2026
The interview was aired hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Jerusalem rejects the 15-point roadmap announced by the Board of Peace on July 30.
Disarming the Iranian-backed terrorist group means that Hamas gives up its “heavy weapons, the less heavy weapons, all the weapons,” the prime minister reiterated, saying there had to be “real disarmament, not fictitious disarmament.”
Jerusalem is discussing the matter with the Trump administration, the premier said, adding that the Americans “have ideas, some of them acceptable to us and some not acceptable to us.”
The IDF will continue to thwart threats against Israeli forces and civilians, he vowed.