Cohen Says No Deal Halts Gaza Strikes; the Board of Peace Says Israel Was Briefed Extensively

Energy Minister Eli Cohen, who sits in the security cabinet, told Army Radio on Sunday 2 August that there is no agreement to stop Israeli attacks in Gaza, that “there has not been a cabinet discussion [on the Gaza plan] in the past 72 hours,” and that “any armed actor who operates, threatens, that is involved with terrorism, we will eliminate him.” He added that Israel would “of course give the opportunity” for the plan to work, and told NBC News he was “very skeptical” Hamas would disarm. Cohen also said Israel already controls 70 percent of the Strip and should take full control — a figure that is his claim, carried by Reuters in his voice, not an independently established one. The strikes continued through Saturday and Sunday, three days after Hamas signed the US-backed disarmament plan on Thursday 30 July.

The toll moved through Sunday: Reuters, reported by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Steven Scheer, had at least nine killed; Times of Israel later said 17, with its own URL still reading “9”; NBC News settled on 13. NBC put the cumulative figure at at least 1,230 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes since the October ceasefire, citing Gaza health authorities who do not separate combatants from civilians; Hamas does not publish its losses. The IDF said an apartment strike in Deir al-Balah targeted two Nukhba commanders and that strikes in Gaza City and Jabalia hit “military operatives,” with the military still reviewing. Reuters separately reports Mohammed Dahlan saying Jared Kushner told him Israel would halt its strikes — one Palestinian interlocutor’s account of a private conversation, contradicted on the record by Cohen the same day.

Assessment: The dispute is institutional, not rhetorical. A Board of Peace official told Times of Israel Israel had been briefed “extensively” as the disarmament deal came together, while Nickolay Mladenov said the team is “working around the clock to de-escalate” and another official conceded “we’re in a tense moment.” Both claims can be literally true — officials can be briefed while the cabinet never convenes — and that gap is precisely where Israeli ministers are operating. Distrust the rolling casualty figure as a correction; it is a live count from three newsrooms working different hours. Distrust Dahlan’s account most of all: he has an interest in a halt existing.