Mladenov says Hamas must disarm

Nickolay Mladenov said on Wednesday that the Gaza ceasefire remains stuck on one central issue: Hamas must disarm before reconstruction can move ahead. The former U.N. envoy, now serving as the top diplomat overseeing the U.S.-brokered Gaza ceasefire, said the condition was “not negotiable” and described the deadlock as the main reason rebuilding plans for the enclave have not advanced. (pbs.org) The remarks put a sharper public definition on a dispute that has hovered over the truce for months. (aljazeera.com) Mladenov also said Hamas did not have to vanish as a political movement, but that armed factions could not remain intact under the ceasefire framework now being discussed. (acleddata.com) The timing matters because the diplomatic freeze has coincided with a renewed rise in Israeli attacks inside Gaza. ACLED, the conflict-monitoring group, said Israeli attack events in Gaza in April were 35% higher than in March, while separate reporting citing Gaza health officials said fatalities also rose after the April 8 Iran ceasefire. (pbs.org) ### What exactly did Mladenov say about Hamas? Nickolay Mladenov said on May 13 that Hamas disarmament remains a fixed condition of the ceasefire arrangement. In comments reported by multiple outlets, he said the talks could not move to reconstruction while the question of weapons remained unresolved. (aljazeera.com) Al Jazeera reported that Mladenov said, “We are not asking Hamas to disappear as a political movement.” That formulation drew a distinction between Hamas as a political actor and Hamas as an armed force, which Mladenov said could not continue under the proposed postwar order. (usnews.com) ### Why has reconstruction been held up? Gaza reconstruction has been paralyzed, Mladenov said, because the ceasefire’s next steps are tied to security arrangements that have not been agreed. Associated Press reporting carried by PBS and other outlets said he linked the impasse directly to the failure to resolve disarmament. (pbs.org) The ceasefire has prevented a return to full-scale war, according to those reports, but it has not produced agreement on core political and military questions. That has left broader rebuilding, aid access and governance arrangements in limbo while negotiators remain divided over Hamas’s future role. (aljazeera.com) ### What do the latest violence figures show? ACLED said in its Gaza Conflict Monitor that it tracks political violence and property destruction events in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023. Reporting on ACLED’s April data said Israeli attacks in Gaza rose 35% from March to April. Reuters-based and other follow-up reports said around 120 Palestinians were killed in strikes in the weeks after the April 8 Iran ceasefire, citing Gaza health officials. (pbs.org) Those reports said the increase in attacks came even as the Gaza truce formally remained in place. ### How are Israeli officials framing the same period? (arabnews.com) The Israeli military said Hamas was rearming, according to reporting published on May 13. That explanation was cited alongside the increase in strikes, though the military did not publicly provide a detailed breakdown in the material surfaced here. (acleddata.com) Benjamin Netanyahu met Mladenov in Jerusalem on May 13, according to The Times of Israel. The meeting underscored that Israeli officials remain directly engaged with the envoy as the ceasefire’s implementation stalls. (usnews.com) ### What happens next in the talks? May 13 became a marker in the negotiations because Mladenov used it to say publicly that the ceasefire is holding but remains incomplete. His comments suggested that future talks will continue to focus on sequencing: disarmament, governance and reconstruction. (usnews.com) ACLED’s next Gaza Conflict Monitor updates and any further statements from Mladenov, Israeli officials or Hamas representatives are likely to provide the clearest public signals on whether the ceasefire can move past the current impasse. No new reconstruction timetable was announced on Wednesday. (acleddata.com) (timesofisrael.com)