Daijiworld Media Network – New York
New York, Aug 28: A senior official on US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace has warned that the Gaza ceasefire could reach a “point of no return” if the ongoing violence between Israel and Hamas continues.
Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, made the remarks while addressing the UN Security Council on Wednesday, amid disagreements over a 15-point roadmap for Hamas’s disarmament and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.
Under the proposed roadmap, Hamas has agreed to surrender its weapons in return for a phased withdrawal of Israeli troops. However, Israel has insisted that Hamas must be completely disarmed before any withdrawal takes place.
Mladenov criticised the continued Israeli air strikes in Gaza and also said Hamas had yet to fully honour its commitment to end military activities. He warned that continued attacks and violations by either side were undermining the ceasefire.
“A ceasefire in fact under which civilians are still buried is not yet one that the people of Gaza can really feel,” Mladenov said, warning that every unnecessary use of force was making the peace process increasingly difficult to revive.
He said Hamas also needed to fulfil its commitments, including ending military operations and handing over weapons and dismantling its military infrastructure.
Mladenov said the proposed roadmap envisaged a reciprocal process in which the withdrawal of Israeli forces would follow the verified decommissioning of Hamas weapons. He added that discussions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had resulted in the creation of committees to address Israel’s remaining concerns.
Israel's representative at the UN maintained that the country remained committed to the US-brokered ceasefire plan but insisted that Hamas could not be allowed to retain weapons, tunnels or other military infrastructure.
“Disarmament must come first,” she said.
The Palestinian representative, meanwhile, accused Israel of killing civilians in Gaza with impunity and urged the international community to take immediate steps to protect them.
Mladenov warned that the collapse of the ceasefire would have devastating consequences for the region.
“If the ceasefire is allowed to collapse, there will be no roadmap to return to, there will be no administration to deploy, and there will be nothing left of the ground to rebuild,” he said.
He described such a development as “a point of no return for everyone”.
According to Gaza’s 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 has reported the deaths of four soldiers in Palestinian attacks during the same period.
The Gaza war began after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage. Israel subsequently launched a military campaign in Gaza, with the territory’s health ministry reporting more than 73,430 deaths.