Palestinian groups urge UN mandate for Gaza mission

Palestinian militant group Hamas and other Palestinian factions have reiterated that any international mission in Gaza must operate under a United Nations mandate, as the UN Security Council prepared to vote on a US-drafted resolution.

The factions warned that a mandate structured outside UN authority could pave the way for "external domination over the Palestinian national decision", Turkiye's Anadolu Agency reported. They said channeling humanitarian assistance through a foreign-run mechanism would turn aid into a tool of pressure, undermining Palestinian institutions and weakening the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

They said any international mission must fall fully under a UN mandate — a view shared by Arab partners — and coordinate exclusively with official Palestinian institutions, as foreign military presence or trusteeship would amount to a direct assault on Palestinian sovereignty.

The groups also called for international mechanisms to hold Israel accountable for its continuing violations of the ceasefire agreement, including the humanitarian crisis resulting from Israel's control of Gaza's crossings.

The UN Security Council was expected to vote on a United States-drafted resolution on Monday that would establish a "Board of Peace" in the Gaza Strip along with an international stabilization force, as parties attempt to break the impasse over the territory's future.

The draft would follow up on the US-brokered ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas last month, Arab News reported. Unlike previous drafts, the latest text reportedly mentions a possible future Palestinian state — a notion rejected by the Israeli government — and calls for the disarmament of Hamas.

Arhama Siddiqa, a research fellow at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad in Pakistan, told China Daily that the US-authored draft resolution reflects yet another attempt to engineer a post-conflict governance structure without addressing the fundamental issue: Israel's continued occupation and the denial of Palestinian self-determination.

"Hamas' rejection is therefore unsurprising, because any mechanism that sidelines Palestinian agency while legitimizing a security architecture aligned with Israeli and US preferences will inherently lack credibility on the ground," she said.

An "unequivocal commitment to a full Israeli withdrawal", genuine Palestinian representation and adherence to international law should be reiterated, she said.

Otherwise, she warned, such initiatives "are likely to be viewed as extensions of occupation rather than pathways to durable peace", she added.