The US-led Board of Peace supplied the crucial clarification that Israel had sought after raising objections to the Gaza disarmament roadmap: Israeli forces will withdraw beyond the Yellow Line only after Hamas has completely surrendered its weapons, military infrastructure and tunnels. While this may calm a deeply sceptical Israeli cabinet, this reassurance significantly changes the balance of the proposed arrangement in Gaza.
The original arrangement had envisaged a phased process–an end to military operations, decommissioning of armed groups, Palestinian civilian administration, an international stabilisation force and Israeli withdrawal. However, the emphasis on Hamas’ disarmament gives Israel, already controlling nearly 70 per cent of Gaza, the occupying power, a powerful, perhaps open-ended, veto over the very process meant to end its occupation.
The hard diplomatic work lies precisely there. A credible demilitarisation process needs independent verification, a functioning Palestinian civilian authority and security guarantees that neither Israel nor Hamas can unilaterally rewrite. It cannot be policed exclusively by the side whose army holds the land.
The human cost of leaving that question unresolved was on display in Gaza City this week. One hundred and twelve bodies were buried after civil-defence teams recovered them from the rubble of a neighbourhood bombed in November 2023. At least 157 people remain missing beneath the same site. Gaza health authorities say more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, including at least 1,250 since the October ceasefire. Before Gaza can be governed, its people must be able to retrieve their dead, reopen hospitals, restore water and move without wondering whether the next strike will erase another family. This is the setting in which Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar heads to Jordan for the emergency ministerial meeting on occupied Jerusalem. Isn’t it ironic to see Gaza’s future get negotiated through security arrangements while Israel’s facts on the ground continue to press upon Jerusalem. On July 23, more than 2,000 Israeli religious-right activists, led by Itamar Ben-Gvir, entered Al Aqsa compound and performed prayers and rituals in violation of its established status quo. The compound’s 144 dunams fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Jordanian-appointed Jerusalem Waqf. Jordanian custodianship is among the last institutional safeguards against unilateral alteration of Jerusalem’s religious and political character. The July incursion was a practical test of whether that prevailing order still commands restraint on the ground. Pakistan’s task in Amman is therefore more exacting than joining another declaration. FM Dar should press for a published, mutually accepted Gaza implementation text, which focuses on parallel and independently monitored obligations for a halt in Israeli attacks in addition to the unrestricted entry of fuel and medical supplies and protection for Al Aqsa’s legal and historical status. A Gaza agreement that freezes Israeli control while waiting for an undefined moment of complete disarmament will not bring peace. It will only serve to administer the ruins.
