A senior official on US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace criticised Israel’s continuing air strikes on Gaza and the actions of Hamas.
Nickolay Mladenov warned that a collapse of the ceasefire agreed in October would be a “point of no return” for the region. He was speaking to the UN Security Council after Israel rejected the 15‑point roadmap for Hamas disarmament, announced by the Board last month.
Hamas had agreed to give up its weapons in exchange for a phased Israeli troop withdrawal, but Israel insists that the group must fully disarm before any pullout.
According to the Hamas-run health ministry, at least 1,303 Palestinians, including 300 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire began. The Israeli military reports four of its soldiers were killed during the same period.
Mladenov noted his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu highlighted a mechanism to settle remaining questions and the establishment of committees for that purpose. He said the process had not stalled but warned that continued killing of Palestinian civilians risks the ceasefire.
He described how a ceasefire under which civilians remain buried is not yet one that the people of Gaza can feel, and that every use of force that does not answer an immediate threat costs the process something hard to recover.
The envoy acknowledged that Hamas had not yet met its commitment to cease all military activity. He cited every weapon carried, every tunnel working, and every convoy still obstructed as setbacks that give ammunition to those who want to resume war.
Under the new roadmap, Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza follows the verified decommissioning of Hamas weapons handed over to a Palestinian technocratic committee that will govern Gaza under the Board of Peace’s supervision. That is a key difference from comments made by President Trump’s envoy, Jared Kushner, who said Israeli withdrawal would be discussed only once the demilitarisation of Gaza was “done.”
The Israeli representative said it could not succeed while Hamas still had weapons, tunnels, and other military infrastructure, and that disarmament must come first. The Palestinian representative condemned Israeli killings of civilians with impunity and called on the international community to protect them without delay.
Mladenov warned that if the ceasefire collapses, there would be no roadmap to return to, no administration to deploy, and nothing left to rebuild. "That would not be a setback. It would be a point of no return for everyone," he said.
The war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. Israel responded with a military campaign in Gaza, in which more than 73,430 people have been killed, according to the territory’s health ministry.
