In brief
The Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, told the UN Security Council today that Israeli air strikes in Gaza continue to kill civilians, while Hamas has yet to meet its disarmament pledge. He warned that a break in the ceasefire would mean no roadmap back to peace, no administration to build and no salvaging of Gaza’s battered ground. Mladenov also noted that Israel wants a full disarmament before troops withdraw, while Israel’s representative insisted Israel would not pull out until Hamas is entirely demilitarised. His comments underline the tense standoff between the two sides and the fragile status of the Gaza ceasefire. The war began with a Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 and has since turned into a massive humanitarian crisis.
A senior Board of Peace officer, Nickolay Mladenov, criticised Israel’s continuing air strikes on Gaza and warned that the recent collapse of the ceasefire is a point of no return for the region.
He said Israel had rejected the 15‑point roadmap for Hamas’s disarmament, which he presented to the UN Security Council. The roadmap proposed that Hamas give up its weapons in exchange for a phased Israeli troop withdrawal.
According to the Palestinian health ministry, at least 1,303 Palestinians, including 300 children, have been killed since the ceasefire. The Israeli military claims only four of its soldiers have been lost.
Mladenov outlined the new plan: Israeli troops would withdraw only after Hamas has fully de‑commissioned its weapons, transferred them to a Palestinian technocratic committee that would govern Gaza under Board of Peace supervision.
He stressed that each weapon carried, each tunnel kept open and each convoy obstructed pushes back the peace process, giving ammunition to those who want to resume war.
Mladenov warned that a collapse of the ceasefire would erase the roadmap, destroy administration and leave something to rebuild only in memories. He urged the international community to protect civilians from suffering.
The conflict began with a Hamas‑led assault on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people. Israel’s response launched a military campaign that, by health reports, killed more than 73,430 people in Gaza.
