The US-led Board of Peace is preparing to begin implementing its Gaza governance and reconstruction initiative in parts of Gaza that are not under Hamas control, Axios reported on Wednesday, citing a Board of Peace official and two additional sources briefed on the matter.
The move comes after efforts to persuade Hamas to relinquish its heavy weapons reached a deadlock, leading the US and the Board of Peace to consider advancing the plan without the terrorist organization.
President Donald Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza is based on the demilitarization of Hamas. However, months of discussions with the group have reportedly produced little progress.
A US official said Washington has informed Israel that it does not support renewing the war in Gaza as a way to break the impasse.
The plan reportedly allows implementation to move forward in areas outside Hamas control if the group refuses or delays acceptance of the agreement's terms. The IDF currently controls more than half of Gaza.
Talks regarding Hamas demilitarization have involved Board of Peace representative Nickolay Mladenov, US diplomats, and mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey.
The proposal envisioned Hamas surrendering its heavy weapons and tunnel infrastructure in the initial stage, followed by the dismantling of militias and the decommissioning of personal weapons.
The process was intended to pave the way for a Palestinian technocratic government to assume responsibility in Gaza, establish a new Palestinian police force, deploy an International Stabilization Force, and enable further IDF withdrawals.
Hamas, however, has refused to discuss disarmament while accusing Israel of failing to fulfill commitments related to humanitarian aid, the Rafah crossing, and military activity in Gaza.
Speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Mladenov acknowledged what he described as Israeli ceasefire violations.
"Civilians are still being killed, for Palestinians in Gaza, the war is not fully over," Mladenov said.
He also accused Hamas of tightening its control over Gaza's population "to prove nothing moves without its permission," while stressing the need to move beyond the current situation.
Axios reported that last week, Mladenov and US diplomat Aryeh Lightstone met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the stalemate with Hamas. According to sources briefed on the meeting, the discussions led to consideration of a "plan B."
Working groups were reportedly established to present recommendations for next steps within a week.
While some Israeli officials raised the possibility of resuming military operations in Gaza, the Trump administration and the Board of Peace opposed such a move.
"We do not think it is in the US or Israel's interest that the war in Gaza resumes. We don't think we exhausted all other options to implement the 20-point peace plan," a US official said.
During a closed briefing last week at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Mladenov reportedly said the alternative plan would involve beginning implementation of the 20-point initiative in areas outside Hamas control.
The plan would reportedly include relocating the Palestinian technocratic government, which has been operating from Cairo, into those areas, beginning reconstruction projects there, and deploying the International Stabilization Force alongside a newly trained Palestinian police force.
According to sources cited in the report, the Palestinian government would later encourage residents to relocate from Hamas-controlled areas.
Hamas has reportedly sought to prevent such efforts, including by blocking Palestinian construction workers from traveling to Rafah to participate in reconstruction work led by the United Arab Emirates.
Mladenov and Lightstone met Netanyahu again on Wednesday to discuss future steps in Gaza and emphasize the need for Israeli cooperation, according to a Board of Peace official.
"The message was that if we want to make progress, we need to move from a situation where we are sitting on opposite sides of the table and negotiating to a situation where we are all on the same side of the table," the official said.
The Trump administration and the Board of Peace reportedly hope to publicly present the alternative plan at the beginning of June.
"We knew Hamas was going to obstruct, and we recognize it is going to continue to try and do that," a Board of Peace official told Axios.