Officials in U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace on Tuesday criticized a wave of kite launches from the Gaza Strip toward Israeli communities near the border, while also sharply criticizing recent IDF operations in Gaza, saying tactical Israeli actions were causing broader strategic damage.
“Every violation is dealt with immediately with the side responsible,” Board of Peace officials said. “We established a mechanism led by the U.S. military that handles these issues quickly. The violating side understands that continued violations will carry serious consequences. Both sides are still violating the 20-point agreement.”
The comments came amid a series of kite launches from Gaza into southern Israel, including one that was found in agricultural fields near Kibbutz Kfar Aza.
Board officials said their broader goal was to bring both sides back into compliance with the agreement and move toward the disarmament of Hamas.
“We are trying to get the sides back on track in implementing the agreements,” the officials said. “The sooner the 20-point agreement is implemented, the sooner we can begin disarming Hamas of both heavy and light weapons.”
They said that if Hamas refuses to disarm, Israel would then be able to act forcefully with international diplomatic backing.
“Alternatively, if Hamas does not disarm, Israel will be able to act with force and with international diplomatic support,” they said. “It is a shame that Israel is missing this enormous opportunity for the sake of a small number of tactical actions that will not actually bring about Hamas’ disarmament.”
Officials in the Trump-established body also leveled unusually sharp criticism at IDF operations carried out in Gaza in recent weeks.
“The IDF’s actions in recent weeks are generating a lot of media attention, but they are tactical operations with no meaningful security value that are causing significant strategic damage,” they said.
According to the officials, those operations were helping preserve Hamas’ civilian and military control rather than bringing about the organization’s elimination.
One of the kites launched from Gaza
“These actions perpetuate Hamas’ civilian and military rule and do not really eliminate Hamas,” they said. “For every person eliminated, Hamas recruits 100 new young people.”
The criticism came as dozens of protesters, including residents of Israeli communities near Gaza, demonstrated Tuesday morning at the Kerem Shalom crossing over the growing number of kites entering Israel from the Strip and against the deployment of foreign forces in Gaza before Hamas is fully disarmed.
The protesters later moved near a U.S. base in the south and continued their demonstration there.
Danny Rahamim, a member and spokesman of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, told the protest: “After October 7 and the Hamas monsters, there is no chance Hamas will continue to rule Gaza. It will not happen.”
The groups Tzav 9 and the Israel Envelope Forum, which organized the protest, described it as an “emergency protest” against plans to introduce international forces into Gaza and begin reconstruction before the Strip has been fully demilitarized and Hamas stripped of its weapons and infrastructure.
“We are crying out against the direct harm to the security of the state and the transfer of security authority to foreign forces whose interests conflict with those of the State of Israel,” the groups said.