Mladenov warns the Gaza ceasefire could collapse as a rare Jenin airstrike kills three
Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov said both sides' failure to follow the Gaza roadmap threatens a ceasefire collapse; deployment of the International Stabilization Force has been determined, with Morocco agreeing to take part and Turkiye excluded after an Israeli veto. The Israeli military said it killed three people in Jenin, naming Qais Bitawi as a Hamas operative; Hamas did not claim him and Palestinian Islamic Jihad said he was a senior armed-wing member.
Geopolitics··Midday
Mladenov restates the roadmap warning and force deployment
Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for the Board of Peace, told Al Jazeera that both sides' failure to follow the roadmap threatens a collapse of the ceasefire in Gaza and that a return to war would be devastating. Mladenov first proposed the 15-point roadmap on 21 May; the Board of Peace announced on 31 July that agreement had been reached, Hamas said it had approved the plan, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then rejected it. Mladenov said the Board has determined how and where the International Stabilization Force is to deploy, that Morocco has agreed to take part and that Turkiye will not, after Israel vetoed Ankara's involvement. He said reconstruction pledges have reached 7 billion dollars and credited Qatar, Egypt and Turkiye with advancing the agreement with Hamas. He described talks with Israel on increasing humanitarian aid as good. Gaza's Health Ministry says 1,303 Palestinians have been killed and 4,336 wounded by Israeli fire since the ceasefire took effect in October 2025.[1]
A rare Jenin airstrike killed three people
The Israeli military said it killed three people in Jenin on Friday, naming one of them as Qais Bitawi and describing him as a Hamas operative, in a rare use of air power in the occupied West Bank. A military spokesperson said the strike targeted a car carrying the men; the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that a house under construction in western Jenin City was hit and that three people were killed instantly. The Palestine Red Crescent said Israeli ground troops raided the site, briefly detained medics and prevented them from moving the dead and wounded to hospital. The Israeli military said Bitawi directed, funded and carried out attacks on Israeli civilians and security forces and kept ties with Hamas members in Gaza and abroad; those claims have not been independently verified. Hamas condemned the strike but did not claim the man targeted as a member, while Palestinian Islamic Jihad said Bitawi was a senior operative of its armed wing.[2]
Peshmerga aid ends on 30 September
The memorandum under which the Pentagon funds the Kurdistan Region's security force ends on 30 September, the day the last US and coalition troops leave Iraq. Four sources told the BBC that defence department officials had said in recent meetings that they were not planning to renew it; Kurdish officials fear the cut would open a power vacuum and embolden Iran. The Pentagon signed the memorandum in 2016 and renewed it in 2022; the Peshmerga, about 180,000 strong, received 61 million dollars in the 2026 fiscal year for weapons, training and stipends through the counter-IS programme. The Pentagon's 2027 fiscal year budget request proposed cutting that assistance entirely, arguing the money should be reallocated now that IS is defeated, and the request is on hold inside a wider budget fight in Congress. Research compiled by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies says Iran and Iran-backed militias had carried out 158 missile or drone attacks inside Iraqi Kurdistan by late May. The Kurdistan Regional Government declined to comment.[3]
