The Gaza Roadmap: A Diplomatic Fantasy That Keeps Hamas in Power

 Full report at https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22543/gaza-roadmap-diplomatic-fantasy 

by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  May 26, 2026 

• Hamas remains armed, organized, and committed to its declared goal of destroying Israel through jihad (holy war). Yet instead of confronting this reality, international diplomats continue to indulge in dangerous fantasies about negotiating Hamas out of existence.
• [Nickolay] Mladenov [former United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process] added that the biggest obstacle to full implementation of the ceasefire remains "Hamas's refusal to accept a verified decommissioning, relinquishing coercive control, and permit a genuine civilian transition in Gaza."
• That Mladenov is appealing to the UN Security Council to pressure Hamas reveals the core flaw of the entire approach: the "Board of Peace" and its international sponsors continue to view Hamas as a rational political actor rather than what it actually is: a jihadist terror group.
• Mladenov's roadmap repeatedly speaks about "reciprocity," "verification," "implementation mechanisms," and "phased decommissioning."
• Hamas's charter states that "Israel will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it," and mandates jihad as a religious and individual duty for all Muslims to "liberate Palestine."
• Hamas [in the "roadmap"] is even being allowed to remain armed and influential during the early stages of the transition process....
• This is unacceptable and contradicts the very spirit of the UN Security Council Resolution 2803, on which the roadmap claims to be based. The resolution authorizes a temporary International Stabilization Force and requires the complete demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, including the full disarmament of Hamas and the destruction of all its military infrastructure.
• The message being sent to Hamas is unambiguous: continue holding your weapons, continue ruling the Gaza Strip through intimidation and terror, and the international community will keep negotiating with you.
• The latest roadmap explicitly states that the proposal "does not call for immediate surrender or unilateral disarmament." Instead, it outlines a "phased, Palestinian-led internationally verified process."
• Hamas... has already made clear that it rejects the proposal altogether.
• Hamas is again telling the world openly that it has no intention of disarming. It wants to remain in power so it can continue pursuing, with the help of the Iranian regime, its jihad against Israel.
• While diplomats hold meetings in Cairo, New York, Doha, and Ankara, Hamas uses time to entrench itself, rearm, regroup, recruit, and tighten its control over the Gaza Strip's population.
• Despite recognizing this reality, the proposed solution is still more diplomacy, more negotiations, and more phased implementation mechanisms.
• The new roadmap offers no serious answers because it is based on the false premise that Hamas will agree to disarm and give up power through negotiations and diplomacy.
• The hard truth is that Hamas will not voluntarily disarm. It will not transform itself into a peaceful political movement. It will not abandon its jihadist ideology because of UN resolutions or international conferences.
• When the Mladenov roadmap inevitably collapses under Hamas's rejectionism, the world may finally be forced to admit what should have been obvious long ago: Negotiations do not defeat Islamist terrorist groups. As with Afghanistan and Iran, deciding not to defeat them only re-empowers them.