UN official overseeing Trump Gaza ceasefire plan criticizes Israeli strikes

Nikolay Mladenov, the high representative of the Board of Peace responsible for President Donald Trump’s Gaza cease-fire plan, told the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday that Israel’s ongoing strikes are jeopardising the initiative. He said the 20-point proposal has moved from negotiations to implementation and that Hamas has accepted the key provision to disarm and hand over Gaza to civilian authority.

"After three years of war and 20 years of military operations, I ask, will another strike on a munitions depot stop Hamas from rearming or tightening its grip on Gaza? It will not. It only delays the demilitarization that would happen," Mladenov said.

Mladenov noted that while the number of Palestinian casualties has fallen since the October cease-fire, the continued Israeli bombardment prevents Gazans from feeling that the conflict is ending. He warned that if hostilities resume, there would be no roadmap for reconstruction and “a point of no return for everyone.”

He said a recent meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump adviser Jared Kushner addressed Israel’s concerns and narrowed technical issues that remain. Israel’s deputy U.N. ambassador Noa Furman reiterated support for the plan but said it could not succeed while Hamas remains armed. U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz indicated that Hamas’s disarmament will be judged on its actions.

Mladenov emphasized that the alternative to the Trump proposal is a Gaza that is “re-armed, divided and in rubble, with a radicalized generation raised inside it and the next war already on the horizon.” He described the plan as offering a credible pathway toward a two-state solution, which Netanyahu opposes.