Hamas disbanded its government in Gaza, but Israel will still prevent reconstruction from starting
Tareq S. Hajjaj writes in Mondoweiss on 10 July 2026 :
Earlier this week, Hamas formally dissolved its government in Gaza, presenting the decision as a major concession intended to remove one of the primary obstacles to advancing the ceasefire agreement with Israel and launching Gaza’s long-delayed reconstruction.
The announcement, made on Monday by Gaza’s Government Media Office, marks Hamas’s clearest declaration yet that it is prepared to step aside from civilian governance and hand it over to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), an ostensibly apolitical committee of Palestinian technocrats overseen by Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” and tasked with overseeing civilian affairs in the Strip as part of the U.S. President’s 20-point plan.
In doing so, Hamas is throwing the ball in the other side’s court — namely, the U.S., the NCAG, and the Board of Peace — depriving Israel of what it portrays as its pretexts for delaying reconstruction. But notably absent from Monday’s announcement was any mention of Hamas’s disarmament, the key condition that Israel has placed for its continued phased withdrawal from Gaza and allowing the entry of reconstruction materials and aid into the Strip.
Since the ceasefire agreement was signed in October of last year, Israel withdrew to the so-called “Yellow Line” that cut Gaza roughly in half, with the remaining half of the Strip under Hamas’s control. According to the terms of Trump’s 20-point plan, Israel was supposed to allow the entry of aid and mobile homes during the first phase of the ceasefire, and to subsequently withdraw from more territory in the Strip as the ceasefire progressed into its later phases. But Israel has reneged on its obligations in the ceasefire’s first phase, and has progressively expanded the Yellow Line to seize even more territory in Gaza, now encompassing well over 65% of the Strip. But the linchpin of its refusal to honor the ceasefire’s terms has been the issue of Hamas’s disarmament.
Over the past several months, Hamas’s ongoing negotiations with mediators and officials from the Board of Peace have revolved around this issue, with the Board’s High Representative, Nickolay Mladenov, echoing Israel’s maximalist demands for total disarmament ahead of any entry of aid or reconstruction materials, let alone withdrawal from more territory. Hamas has called Mladenov’s terms “the occupation’s conditions,” calling into question the supposed neutrality of the Board of Peace.
Following Monday’s announcement, Mladenov doubled down on these “outstanding implementation provisions” and reiterated that reconstruction can only begin after they are met. As for the technocratic committee, NCAG chairman Ali Shaath, who, alongside the rest of the committee, is still in Cairo, said the committee would only enter Gaza under specific conditions: “one authority, one law, one weapon.” This was the same formulation used by the Board of Peace, which stated that all weapons must be consolidated “under the control of the NCAG.”
The Board’s statement contradicts the original formulation of the NCAG as a purely administrative body without any involvement in security, a task that would supposedly be taken up by a prospective International Stabilization Force from member countries of the Board. But this formulation was later unilaterally revised by the Board in a 12-point document presented to Hamas in March, which envisioned an eight-month period in which Hamas would be compelled to surrender over its arms to the NCAG, which would have its own police force authorized to carry weapons.