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)

GUATIRE, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela released a number of imprisoned high-profile opposition figures, activists and journalists — both citizens and foreigners — Thursday in what the government described as a gesture to “seek peace” less than a week after former President Nicolás Maduro was captured by U.S. forces to face drug-trafficking charges.

President Donald Trump, who has been pressuring Maduro allies now leading the country to fold to his vision for the future of the oil-rich nation, said the releases came at the request of the United States. In the interview on Fox News on Thursday night, Trump praised the government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez, saying: “they've been great. ... Everything we’ve wanted, they’ve given us.”

Jorge Rodríguez, brother of the acting president and head of Venezuela's National Assembly, said a “significant number” of people would be freed, but as of late Thursday night it was still not clear who or how many people would be released. The U.S. government and Venezuela's opposition have long demanded the widespread release of imprisoned politicians, critics and members of civil society. The Venezuelan government insists it doesn’t hold political prisoners.

“Consider this a gesture by the Bolivarian (Venezuelan) government, which is broadly intended to seek peace,” he announced.

Among those released was Biaggio Pilieri, an opposition leader who was part of Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado’s 2024 presidential campaign, according to Foro Penal, an advocacy group for prisoners based in Caracas. Also released was Enrique Márquez, a former electoral authority and candidate in the 2024 presidential election, the organization said.

Videos posted by journalists on social media show Márquez and Pilieri embracing loved ones on the streets outside the prison. One video showed Márquez beaming and video-calling family members, saying, “Soon I will be with you all.”

Five Spanish citizens — including the prominent Venezuelan-Spanish lawyer and human rights activist Rocío San Miguel — were also released in the afternoon and, as the night wore on, reports trickled out of more detainees walking free. Relatives who waiting for hours outside one of the prisons on the outskirts of Caracas briefly chanted, “Libertad! Libertad!”

Venezuela's government has a history of releasing people imprisoned for political reasons — including real and perceived opponents — during moments of high tension to signal openness to dialogue. The releases on Thursday were the first since Maduro was deposed.

Human rights groups and members of the opposition were encouraged by the move, though it wasn’t clear yet what it represented — whether the growing pains of a government in transition or a symbolic overture to placate the Trump administration, which has allowed Maduro’s loyalists to stay in power as it exerts pressure through crippling sanctions.

For opposition leader Machado – whom Trump has snubbed by endorsing Rodríguez to lead the transition — the gesture was “an act of moral restitution."

“Nothing brings back the stolen years,” she said in an audio message from exile addressed to families of released detainees, urging them to take comfort in the knowledge that “injustice will not be eternal and that the truth, though badly wounded, eventually prevails.”

Alfredo Romero, president of Foro Penal, expressed cautious hope "that this is indeed the beginning of the dismantling of a repressive system in Venezuela ... and not a mere gesture, a charade of releasing some prisoners and incarcerating others.”

Despite a widespread crackdown during the tumultuous 2024 election — in which the government said it detained 2,000 people — Venezuela's government denies that there are prisoners unjustly detained, accusing them of plotting to destabilize Maduro’s government.

Romero's organization said that as of Dec. 29, 2025, there were 863 people detained in Venezuela “for political reasons.”

The Spanish government said Thursday that five of its citizens, including dual national San Miguel, had been released from custody in Venezuela and would soon return to Spain.

Speaking to Spanish broadcaster RNE, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares identified the other Spanish nationals released as Andrés Martínez, José María Basoa, Ernesto Gorbe and Miguel Moreno.

Two of them, Martínez and Basoa, were arrested in Venezuela in September 2024 and accused of plotting to destabilize Maduro’s government as Spanish spies — allegations vehemently denied by Spain.

Spain’s El País newspaper reported Thursday that another freed detainee, Gorbe, was arrested in 2024 on allegations of overstaying his visa.

As the news of the release broke Thursday, families of detainees rushed to prisons across the country, seeking information on their loved ones.

Pedro Durán, 60, was among those hoping to reunite with his brother Franklin Durán as he waited outside a prison in the town of Guatire, around 25 miles (43 kilometers) outside of Caracas. Durán said his brother was detained in 2021 on charges of trying to overthrow Maduro’s government — an accusation his family denies.

Durán, who has been living in Spain, heard rumors on Wednesday that the government could release a number of detainees and immediately bought a plane ticket from Madrid to Caracas to find his brother.

“I don’t have words to express the emotion I’m feeling,” Durán said. “We’re feeling a lot of hope ... We’re just waiting now.”

Despite the anticipation, fear persists.

“Of course everyone here is very scared, but what more could (the government) do to us that they haven’t done already,” he added.

Ronal Rodríguez, a researcher at the Venezuelan Observatory at the University of Rosario in Bogotá, Colombia, said the government releases prisoners at politically strategic moments.

In July last year, Venezuela released 10 jailed U.S. citizens and permanent residents in exchange for the repatriation of over 200 Venezuelans deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador, where they had been held in a prison built to house criminal gangs.

“The regime uses them like a bargaining chip,” he said of prisoners in Venezuela. It will be telling to see not only how many people the government releases, he said, but also under what conditions and whether the releases include anyone high-profile.

On Wednesday, the Trump administration sought to assert its control over Venezuelan oil, seizing a pair of sanctioned tankers transporting petroleum and announcing plans to relax some sanctions so the U.S. can oversee the sale of Venezuela’s petroleum worldwide.

Both moves reflect the administration’s determination to make good on its effort to control the next steps in Venezuela through its vast oil resources after U.S. President Donald Trump pledged after the capture of Maduro that the U.S. will “run” the country.

Trump on Thursday night said that Machado may be visiting Washington next week and that he may be meeting with her.

“I understand she’s coming in next week some time and I look forward to saying hello to her,” Trump said in the Fox News interview with Sean Hannity. “And I’ve heard that she wants to do that.”

Associated Press reporters Jorge Rueda and Ariana Cubillos in Caracas, Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires and Suman Naishadham in Madrid contributed to this report. Janetsky reported from Mexico City.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Relatives of political prisoners gather outside the Rodeo I prison in Guatire, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, after National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said the government would release Venezuelan and foreign prisoners. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Atali Freites, the mother of Juan Jose Freites, arrives near El Helicoide, headquarters of Venezuela's intelligence service (SEBIN) and a detention center, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, after hearing National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez say the government would release Venezuelan and foreign prisoners. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Relatives wait at Zone 7 of the Bolivarian National Police, where political detainees are held, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, after National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said the government would release Venezuelan and foreign prisoners. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Relatives of detainee Yosnars Baduel embrace outside the Rodeo I prison in Guatire, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, after National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said the government would release Venezuelan and foreign prisoners. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Relatives of political prisoners gather outside the Rodeo I prison in Guatire, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, after National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said the government would release Venezuelan and foreign prisoners. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Riot police arrive to El Helicoide, the headquarters of Venezuela's intelligence service and detention center, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, after National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said the government would release Venezuelan and foreign prisoners. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Relatives of political prisoners gather outside the Rodeo I prison in Guatire, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, after National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said the government would release Venezuelan and foreign prisoners. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Police guard El Helicoide, the headquarters of Venezuela's intelligence service and detention center, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, after National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said the government would release Venezuelan and foreign prisoners. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

El Helicoide, top, the headquarters of Venezuela's intelligence service and detention center, stands in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, after National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said the government would release a significant number of Venezuelan and foreign prisoners. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

FILE - Activists and relatives of prisoners release balloons calling for the freedom of political prisoners, in Caracas, Venezuela, April 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)

Commuters ride a bus past a mural calling for the release of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was detained by U.S. forces, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)