Board of Peace's Gaza envoy criticises Israeli strikes and Hamas actions

The Board of Peace's high representative for Gaza told the Security Council on Wednesday that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed at their last meeting on a mechanism through which his government's remaining questions would be settled and that committees had been established for that purpose.Mladenov said that process had not stalled but warned that risks remained, including the continued killing of Palestinian civilians in Israeli strikes."A ceasefire in fact under which civilians are still buried is not yet one that the people of Gaza can really feel. Every use of force that does not answer an immediate threat, and every incident that the deconfliction mechanism was not asked to resolve, costs this process something very hard to buy back," he added.Mladenov acknowledged that Hamas too had yet to meet fully its commitment to cease all military activities."Every weapon carried, every tunnel still worked and every convoy still obstructed sets the process back and hands an argument to those who want to resume war," he said.He repeated that under the new roadmap, Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza "follows verified decommissioning" of Hamas weapons handed over ...