A diplomat overseeing a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza warned that continued violations are threatening efforts to set up a Palestinian transitional authority expected to oversee postwar governance and reconstruction. Nickolay Mladenov, who serves as high representative for Gaza for the U.S.-established Board of Peace, said the committee cannot be effective if the ceasefire keeps breaking down. Speaking during a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, Mladenov tied the ceasefire’s enforcement problems to the ability of Palestinian administrators to take over in Gaza.
Mladenov said the transitional committee has met in Egypt but has not yet entered Gaza. He said it would not be able to do its work unless Hamas, which has governed Gaza since 2007, hands over institutional control. He also called for more aid and improved security as the next stage of the ceasefire approaches.
The international board, established by U.S. President Donald Trump, is set to meet next week, according to the panel discussion. Mladenov did not give a specific timeline for the transition, but he said “all of this needs to move very fast,” framing the issue as one of urgency rather than delay.
The ceasefire deal, brokered in October by the United States, is aimed at ending a more than two-year war between Israel and Hamas. Under the agreement, Hamas is to lay down its arms and an international security force is to be deployed, but the deal has not shown “visible progress” toward either requirement, the AP reported from the panel remarks. Israel has continued strikes in response to what it says are truce violations, and Palestinian militants have also attacked Israeli forces, the report said.
Mladenov said the ceasefire violations risk undermining the transitional committee directly. “We need to make sure that what is happening now with the violations of the ceasefire stops,” he said. “We’re only embarrassing the committee and ultimately making it ineffective.”
Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, speaking at the same panel, said the timeline matters and argued that Gaza must not be severed from the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Authority wants to govern both territories ahead of eventual statehood, while Israel has been opposed to that approach, AP said.
The AP reported that while the heaviest fighting has subsided, the ceasefire has involved almost daily Israeli fire. It said Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes and frequently fired on Palestinians near military-held zones. The report also said Gaza health officials put the Palestinian death toll at 591.
The report said Gaza’s Hamas-led government maintains casualty records that U.N. agencies and independent experts view as generally reliable, but it does not provide a breakdown of civilians and militants. Israeli officials say Hamas and other militants carry out shooting attacks on troops and that Israel’s strikes are in response to attacks and other violations, AP added. It said four Israeli soldiers have been killed.
The panel discussion also came as bodies of unidentified Palestinians were buried in central Gaza. The report said the bodies of 53 unidentified Palestinians and 86 unidentified human remains were laid to rest on Friday at a mass burial in Deir Al-Balah cemetery. It said Israel transferred 54 bodies and 66 boxes containing human remains, all unidentified, to Gaza earlier in February via the Red Cross, with only one body identified by a family before the Friday burial.
Ziyad Obeid, director of the cemeteries department at the Endowments Ministry, said from the burial site that a period of time is allotted for families to identify remains and organs but that none were identified in this case. “Unfortunately, none of these remains or organs were identified,” he said.
As families and authorities prepare for the next phase of governance under the ceasefire framework, the diplomat’s warning focused on whether both sides can stop violations quickly enough to allow Palestinian administrators to take control and begin reconstruction planning in practice.