Ahmed Asmar
Middle East Monitor / March 29, 2026
When the United Nations Security Council convened on March 24 to discuss Gaza’s future, the world witnessed something grotesque: a plan dressed in diplomatic language that effectively punishes the victims of genocide while covering its perpetrators. Presented by Nickolay Mladenov, the Trump-appointed envoy of the so-called “Board of Peace,” the proposal demands the complete disarmament of Hamas and all Palestinian armed factions as a precondition for the flow of humanitarian needs and reconstruction. This is not a peace plan. It is a one-sided ultimatum and blackmail disguised in diplomacy and under the umbrella of the United Nations.
A one-sided blackmail, not a negotiation
The leaked framework, reportedly presented to Palestinian factions in Cairo in mid-March, advances a simple equation: surrender your weapons, or watch your people continue to suffer under rubble, displacement, and siege.
Mladenov told the Security Council that “the people of Gaza want reconstruction, and reconstruction requires the decommissioning of weapons.” This logic is as cruel as ignorant to the root cause of Gaza’s problem.
Israel, the occupying power, is almost asked to give up nothing, while its withdrawal and aggression are linked to the disarmament issue, there is no mention to the accountability for a two-year genocidal campaign that killed over 72,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
At its core, the US plan weaponizes humanitarian need. Reconstruction—the rebuilding of homes, hospitals, schools, and water systems—is conditioned not on Israel ending its occupation or its daily violence, but on Palestinians giving up the very means they have used to resist both. The framework even goes so far as to demand the collection of personal firearms, effectively disarming an entire society under the guise of “stability.”
The mechanism is equally troubling. The National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), originally established under UN Security Council Resolution 2803 to oversee civilian rebuilding, has now been “militarized.”
At the UN, Mladenov confirmed the committee has begun “vetting thousands of civilian police candidates,” turning a civilian body into an enforcement tool that will reportedly monitor and isolate areas based on compliance.
Those who surrender weapons receive aid; those who do not are treated as “rogue zones.” This is not state-building. It is a stark example of collective punishment under the guise of a peace plan.
Ignoring the root cause: occupation
The most damning silence in the entire proposal is the absence of any mention of the occupation. For decades, the international community has acknowledged that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land is the core driver of conflict. Yet here, in a plan supposedly aimed at ending the cycle of violence, the occupier is granted a free hand to conduct security operations against any perceived threats. For instance, there is no demand for Israel to halt settlement expansion, no requirement to stop settler attacks in the West Bank, no consequence for the daily incursions that have killed hundreds since the so-called ceasefire began in October last year.
Instead, the plan asks Palestinians to accept that their resistance—the very right enshrined in international law for peoples under occupation—must be extinguished. And in return, they receive only the promise of reconstruction, based on compliance. This is not peace. It is submission in accordance with Israel’s plans.
Exploiting world’s attention towards war on Iran
The timing for submitting this plan is no coincidence. While the world’s attention is focused on the repercussions of the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran, the Trump administration, clearly under the influence of Netanyahu’s government, sees an opportunity to force a “political surrender” from Hamas.
The plan’s promoters, including US envoy Steve Witkoff, are seeking to enforce a new reality for Gaza, while relieving Israel from any pressure or responsibility. The plan is starkly centered around the Palestinian disarmament.
Even the promised financial incentives remain largely fictional. While the Trump administration has collected some $7 billion in reconstruction pledges, mainly from Gulf states, donor mechanisms have stalled, and only a fraction has materialized. The message to Gaza is clear: surrender first, and perhaps something will follow. But for a population that has watched pledges evaporate for decades, this is not a credible offer.
This plan was supposed to be a step toward ending Palestinian suffering. Instead, it seeks to end the last means Palestinians have to resist their oppressor. The rifles and light weapons that Hamas and other factions hold are not the cause of the conflict—they are a symptom of a decades-long brutal occupation that has never ended. While the plan that is supposed to be a path for a true and fair settlement focuses on a minor and solvable detail (the weapons), it offers no protection for the Palestinians from their oppressors, who continue to enjoy impunity after committing a crystal-clear genocide.
If the international community truly wanted peace, it would pressure the aggressor, not the victim. It would set a clear plan towards ending the occupation, hold perpetrators accountable for committing war crimes, and most importantly dismantle Israel’s expansionist project—not the collection of a handful of weapons desperately used to push back against American-supplied F-35s, bunker-buster bombs and other AI-directed deadly tools.
In a sound logic, these weapons in the resistance forces’ possession were never the problem or impediment of a settlement, as they are a reaction towards the Israeli occupation, and can simply be resolved once ending the very root-cause of their existence.
By linking Gaza’s most basic needs—food, shelter, water—to political surrender, the US plan does not lay the groundwork for peace. It only lays the groundwork for the next aggression (or even genocide) or for perpetuating the Israeli occupation. For how long will the world keep manoeuvring in this vicious circle without addressing the conflict’s root cause, when will Israel face the consequences of its crimes, instead of embracing it or relieving it through unfair plans.
Ahmed Asmar is a journalist and a PhD candidate in International Relations at the Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University, Turkey
