Israel says Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov to direct Trump's Board of Peace for Gaza

JERUSALEM (AP) — A former U.N. 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 defense and foreign minister who served as the U.N. envoy to Iraq before being appointed as the U.N. 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 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.

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.

The head of the U.N. 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.

Shurafa reported from Deir Al Balah, Gaza Strip. Sam Metz contributed from Jerusalem, Suzan Fraser from Ankara, Turkey. Fatma Khaled from Cairo, Koral Saeed from Herzliya, Israel, Matthew Lee from Washington and Maryclaire Dale from Philadelphia.

The bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli army strike are brought to the morgue at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in the Gaza Strip, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli army strike are brought to the morgue at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in the Gaza Strip, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Hamas militants search for the remains of Israeli hostage in Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The body of 11-year-old Palestinian girl Hamsa Hosou, killed by Israeli fire in Jabalia, is brought to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

The body of 11-year-old Palestinian girl Hamsa Hosou, killed by Israeli fire in Jabalia, is brought to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

The body of 11-year-old Palestinian girl Hamsa Hosou, killed by Israeli fire in Jabalia, is brought to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

OSLO, Norway (AP) — Former U.N. human rights chief Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, a judge on the International Court of Justice, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in Oslo, Norway.

The South Africa-born Pillay, 85 years old, was recognized for her efforts to promote peace and international law, said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

The award is often considered the most prestigious honor on the planet.

This year marks the 125th anniversary of the peace prize.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back for updates. AP’s earlier story follows below.

The Nobel Peace Prize, often considered the most prestigious award on the planet, will be announced Friday in Oslo, Norway.

Prognosticators say possible contenders this year include the International Space Station, emergency teams in Sudan, children's advocates in Ukraine and two top international courts. Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada has attracted attention in prediction markets. U.S. President Donald Trump — who is waging a war against Iran — has long coveted the prize and repeatedly said he deserves it.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo received nominations for 287 candidates for this year’s prize, and just over a quarter of them are organizations. Experts say the committee typically focuses on the durability of peace, the promotion of international fraternity and the quiet work of institutions that strengthen those goals.

Last year, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in the South American nation, winning recognition as a woman “who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.”

Machado gave Trump her Nobel medal shortly after the United States ousted then-President Nicolás Maduro. But it was largely a symbolic gesture: the Nobel Committee has said the honor itself cannot be transferred.

Nominations can be made by a select group of people and organizations, including heads of state or politicians serving at a national level, university professors, directors of foreign policy institutes, past Nobel Prize recipients and members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee itself.

Four of this year's Nobels were announced earlier this week. The Nobel for medicine went to three scientists whose work led to a tool that uses light to help unravel how the brain works. The physics award recognized a scientist’s efforts to demystify a rare group of neutrinos. The chemistry prize recognized two scientists for untangling mysterious mirror images in molecules, a discovery that has been used to develop countless drugs.

Canadian poet, essayist and translator Anne Carson won the literature prize Thursday for “bold and inventive” works that fuse the classical and the modern and blur the boundaries of poetry and prose.

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be announced Monday.

The prize money this year is 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million), whether for an individual, small group of laureates or organization.

This year marks the 125th anniversary of the peace prize, which so far has gone to 112 individuals and 28 separate institutions since its inception in 1901. The Red Cross has won three times and the U.N. refugee agency twice.

Just 20 of the 112 individual laureates have been women, but eight of those women received the prize in the past 15 years.

Education activist Malala Yousafzai is the youngest laureate; she won at 17 in 2014.

The United States is the most-credited country, with 24 awards naming U.S. institutions or individuals, ahead of the United Kingdom (13) and Switzerland (11). Yet no laureate listed as American has won since U.S. President Barack Obama was awarded in 2009.

The prize has gone unawarded on 19 occasions, most of them during the world wars. In 1948, the year Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, no prize was awarded; he had been nominated 12 times and never won.

In 1939, a Swedish member of parliament nominated Adolf Hitler, then withdrew the nomination, saying it was never meant seriously.

Dazio reported from Berlin and Lewis reported from Stavanger, Norway.

AP Nobel Prizes: https://apnews.com/hub/nobel-prizes

FILE - A Nobel diploma and medal are displayed, Dec. 8, 2020, during a ceremony in New York. (Angela Weiss/Pool Photo via AP, File)