Israel says Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov to be director-general of peace board

A Palestinian man rides a bicycle past destroyed buildings in Gaza City Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026.

Warning: Graphic content.

JERUSALEM -- -- A former UN Mideast envoy has been chosen to direct U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace to oversee the ceasefire in Gaza, Israel’s prime minister said Thursday, as at least eight more deaths from Israeli strikes were reported there.

The appointment of Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov marks an important step forward for Trump’s Mideast peace plan, which has moved slowly since delivering an October ceasefire ending more than two years of fighting between Israel and Hamas.

Benjamin Netanyahu made the announcement after meeting Mladenov in Jerusalem, identifying him as the “designated” director-general for the board, which is meant to oversee the implementation of the second and far more complicated phase of the cease-fire.

A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the appointment has not been officially announced, confirmed Mladenov is the Trump administration’s choice to be the board’s day-to-day administrator on the ground.

Trump has said he will head the board. Other appointments are expected next week, according to Israeli and American officials, who both spoke on condition of anonymity pending a formal announcement.

Under Trump’s plan, the board is supposed to supervise a new technocratic Palestinian government, the disarmament of Hamas, the deployment of an international security force, additional pullbacks of Israeli troops and reconstruction. The U.S. has reported little progress on any of these fronts so far.

Mladenov is a former Bulgarian defence and foreign minister who served as the UN envoy to Iraq before being appointed as the UN Mideast peace envoy from 2015-2020. During that time, he had good working relations with Israel and frequently worked to ease tensions between Israel and Hamas.

The first phase of the ceasefire halted the fighting and saw an exchange of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel. The deal has largely held, though it has been marred by mutual accusations of violations. Hamas still has not returned the remains of one hostage -- an Israeli policeman killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. Continued Israeli strikes in Gaza, meanwhile, have killed over 400 Palestinians, according to local health officials.

Israel says the strikes have been in response to violations of the deal, but Palestinian health officials say scores of civilians have been among the dead.

Israeli gunfire blamed for at least 8 deaths Thursday

Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip on Thursday killed at least eight people, according to Palestinian hospital officials and family members. Hamas called the deaths a “blatant violation of the ceasefire.”

The victims included an 11-year-old girl who dreamed of becoming a doctor, a teenage girl and two boys killed in a tent camp and a man whose daughter wept over his body outside a hospital.

“Talk to me, dad!” she cried outside Nasser Hospital, where the body of Abdullah al-Kassas had been taken after a strike in eastern Khan Younis.

At least a dozen others were injured, hospital officials said.

Israel’s military said it was not aware of any strike-related casualties in northern Gaza’s Jabaliya area, where 11-year-old Hamsa Housou was killed, and did not immediately comment on the others reported Thursday.

Her uncle, Khamis Housou, told The Associated Press that the family had returned home on Oct. 11, a day after the ceasefire went into effect. He said their Falluja neighborhood has been subjected to daily shooting by Israeli troops despite being on the western side of the yellow ceasefire line.

He heard screams early Thursday as Israeli troops combed the area where shells and shrapnel hit. His niece, who he said had dreams of becoming a doctor, was pronounced dead at Shifa Hospital.

“They say that there is a ceasefire and that the war on Gaza has stopped. Is this only through the media, while every day there are explosions and fire belts?” he asked. “Shooting does not stop. Where is the ceasefire?”

The Israeli military has previously said that any actions since the ceasefire began have been in response to violations of the agreement.

`Hamas refuses to disarm’

On Thursday, Egyptian and European Union leaders meeting in Cairo urged the deployment of an international stabilization force in the Gaza Strip to oversee the October ceasefire.

“The situation is extremely severe. Still, Hamas refuses to disarm. It blocks progress to the next stage of the peace plan at the same time Israel is also restricting the international NGOs that are putting humanitarian aid access at serious risk,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.

“There’s no justification for the humanitarian situation in Gaza to have deteriorated to the current level,” she said.

The phased ceasefire agreement remains in its initial stage as efforts continue to recover the remains of the final hostage in Gaza. Israel’s Hostages and Missing Families Forum said on Wednesday that it had been notified that teams had recommenced searching for Ran Gvili. The 24-year-old police officer was abducted on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200, mostly civilians, in the attack that triggered the war.

UN aid group to open office in Turkey

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees warned Thursday that Israeli pressure on the organization risks creating a “huge vacuum” in services.

Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, told reporters in Ankara that no other body has the capacity or “community trust” to provide health, education, and social services there.

“If the agency cannot or has to stop to operate in Gaza or in the West Bank, this will create a huge vacuum,” he said.

Lazzarini was in Turkey for talks with officials on improving humanitarian access in Gaza.

In June, Turkey and UNRWA signed an agreement for the agency to open an office in Ankara. Lazzarini said the office, which is expected to open “within weeks,” would initially serve as a liaison and advocacy hub, but could later take on additional functions.

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By Wafaa Shurafa, Sam Metz And Suzan Fraser

Metz reported from Jerusalem and Fraser from Ankara, Turkey. Bassem Mroue and Kareem Chehayeb contributed from Beirut, Fatma Khaled from Cairo and Maryclaire Dale from Philadelphia.