.svg)
Nickolay Mladenov has warned the UN Security Council that renewed fighting in Gaza could derail efforts to implement the ceasefire and rebuild the enclave.
Mariyam Adheela
Nickolay Mladenov, the US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace high representative for Gaza -- Photo: Impactpool
NEW YORK: The failure of the Gaza ceasefire process would be a “point of no return,” Nickolay Mladenov, the US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace high representative for Gaza, warned the UN Security Council on Wednesday.
Mladenov said a resumption of fighting would leave no roadmap for the ceasefire process and could eliminate the possibility of deploying a transitional administration or rebuilding Gaza.
“There will be no roadmap to return to, there will be no administration to deploy and there will be nothing left on the ground to rebuild,” he told the council.
His warning comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Trump’s 15-point peace plan, which Washington says is intended to end the war in Gaza.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health said at least 1,288 Palestinians have been killed and 4,290 wounded since the US-brokered ceasefire took effect in October.
The ministry said the overall Palestinian death toll since the war began on October 7, 2023, has reached at least 73,422.
Mladenov said Hamas and other armed factions in Gaza had agreed to surrender their weapons and transfer full civilian and security authority to a transitional administration recognised by the United Nations.
Under the proposed framework, an International Stabilization Force would oversee the decommissioning of weapons and could be deployed to Gaza if conditions allow.
Mladenov also warned that Hamas must fully meet its commitment to end military activities.
He said continued weapons activity, tunnel operations and obstruction of humanitarian convoys could undermine the ceasefire and strengthen calls for a return to war.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour accused Israel of undermining prospects for regional peace through its continued moves to annex Palestinian land.
Mansour pointed to recently issued tenders for the E1 settlement project in the occupied West Bank, saying the move was deliberately weakening the proposed peace process.
