Herzog Praises the Disarmament Deal While an Unnamed Israeli Official Says It Doesn’t Reflect Israel’s Position

Times of Israel reporting by Jacob Magid and Lazar Berman on 3 August carries Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov lamenting recent Gaza strikes, saying the team is “working around the clock to de-escalate,” while a Board official says Israel was briefed “extensively” as the Hamas disarmament agreement came together. Against that, an Israeli official — unnamed in ToI’s own summary — says the agreement “does not reflect” Israel’s stance, and President Isaac Herzog lauds “positive elements” in it. The gap is the story: the head of state on the record welcoming a deal that an anonymous official is simultaneously distancing the government from. The agreement Trump announced on Truth Social on 30 July claimed “COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza,” with Israeli withdrawal proceeding “as disarmament is completed” in “carefully structured phases.”

The strike tally over the same window arrives with three different provenances, and the Israeli press flags the difference itself. Haaretz’s live headline for 1–2 August reads “Reports: six killed, including a child, in a wave of Israeli strikes across Gaza” — Haaretz’s own word is “reports.” Just Security’s 3 August summary of wire reporting puts the 2 August toll at “at least 18 Palestinians,” attributed to medics, with strikes on Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis and described as the biggest daily death toll in weeks; that figure is sourced to medics, not to a ministry and not to the IDF. By 3 August Haaretz was running “Despite Board of Peace Urging De-escalation, IDF Strikes in Gaza Kill Two.” Al Jazeera’s summary of the terms notes that no weapons are to be handed to Israel or any non-Palestinian body, with a National Committee as sole holder.

Assessment: An unnamed official distancing the government from a deal the president welcomes is a common Israeli manoeuvre in an election season: it preserves the coalition’s right flank without rejecting Washington’s initiative outright. Read the anonymity as the message rather than the leak. The casualty numbers deserve the same care — 18 from medics, six from “reports,” two from Haaretz’s own live desk are not a trend line, and stacking them would manufacture one. What is verifiable is that Mladenov’s envoy office is publicly lamenting strikes by a party it says it briefed extensively, which is an admission that the sequencing in Article-style phased withdrawal is not being observed on the ground.