Hamas has categorically rejected claims by certain "Board of Peace" figures that the movement has refused to relinquish administrative control of the Gaza Strip, calling the claims deliberate fabrications designed to give cover to "Israel's" continued aggression and genocidal war.
Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said Tuesday that the movement remains fully prepared to transfer all civil and security responsibilities in Gaza to the Cairo-based national committee agreed upon by the Palestinian factions, whose mandate is to administer the territory and serve its people.
Qassem highlighted that the true obstacles to the committee's deployment are primarily the Israeli occupation, alongside the Gaza "Board of Peace" High Representative Nickolay Mladenov, whom Qassem accused of deliberately complicating the process by tying all tracks to a single condition within the agreement, a linkage he said contradicts the framework laid out by US President Donald Trump.
He further asserted that the "Board of Peace" has failed to pressure the Israeli regime to allow the committee entry into the Strip, or to provide it with the resources necessary to function.
'Board of Peace' waiting for its first dollar
According to a Financial Times report, the World Bank-administered fund established for Gaza reconstruction has received no contributions from donors four months after the Board's establishment, with one source saying that "zero dollars have been deposited" into the mechanism.
Contributions totaling approximately $23 million from Morocco and the UAE have gone instead toward funding Mladenov's office and salaries for the Palestinian technocratic committee, the same body Hamas says it is ready to hand power to, but which has not yet been able to enter Gaza.
Palestinian-American businessman Bishara Bahbah, who reportedly assisted the Trump administration's negotiations with Hamas, acknowledged the committee's paralysis. "They know that if they go to Gaza, people are going to flood to them to ask for assistance, and they have no tools, no means," he said, adding that "it's really dismal."
The UN and European Union estimated last April that rebuilding the Gaza Strip over the next decade would require approximately $71.4 billion, based on a joint assessment with the World Bank. According to two people familiar with postwar planning cited by the FT, not one US dollar has yet been spent on rebuilding the territory.
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