Gaza at a Point of No Return, Peace Chief Warns
NEW YORK: Gaza cannot survive another major catastrophe, Nickolay Mladenov, the US-appointed high representative for Gaza, warned the UN Security Council on Wednesday.
He said the collapse of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas would leave no clear plan for peace and “nothing left of the ground to rebuild.” A return to full-scale violence, he added, would not simply be a setback but “a point of no return for everyone.”
Mladenov leads the US-backed Board of Peace, an international body created to oversee governance, reconstruction and security coordination in Gaza after the October 2025 truce, according to Arab News.
Briefing the Council on the implementation of Resolution 2803, he described a 15-point road map accepted by Hamas and other Palestinian factions on July 30 as a “historic breakthrough.” Under the plan, armed groups would hand over their weapons and transfer civilian and security responsibilities to a UN-recognised transitional administration.
However, Mladenov cautioned that signing a disarmament agreement did not mean Gaza had already been disarmed. The plan is based on the principle of “One Authority, One Law, One Weapon,” with each stage beginning only after the previous one has been independently verified.
“We must trust nothing and verify everything,” he said.
Weapons would be removed from armed factions, placed under the control of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza and made unusable under international supervision. The committee has also prepared a six-month recovery programme, plans for a civilian police force and measures to restore public services.
Mladenov stressed that the committee would not replace the Palestinian Authority. It would govern only during the transition.
He said humanitarian conditions had improved since famine was reported in Gaza, but warned that the progress could quickly disappear. Funding shortages may disrupt food and aid deliveries by the end of September, while shelter supplies remain inadequate as winter approaches.
Israeli strikes have continued, and Palestinian civilians are still being killed, although casualties have fallen sharply, he said.
Mladenov urged the Council to support the international stabilisation force, back Gaza’s transitional administration and protect the goal of Palestinian self-determination.
The choice, he said, was between “a Gaza disarmed, rebuilt and reconnected to the world” and “a Gaza rearmed, divided and in rubble.”
