Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, made these remarks to the UN Security Council following Israel’s rejection of a 15-point roadmap for Hamas’s disarmament announced by the Board last month.

Disagreement Over Disarmament and Withdrawal

Hamas has agreed to give up its weapons in exchange for a phased Israeli troop withdrawal — However, Israel has insisted that the group must fully disarm before any pullout occurs.

At least 1,303 Palestinians, including 300 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since the US-brokered ceasefire began, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN. The Israeli military reported that four of its soldiers have been killed in Palestinian attacks over the same period.

Progress and Persistent Risks

Mladenov told the Security Council on Wednesday that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed on a mechanism to address remaining issues and that committees had been established for that purpose. He emphasized that the process had not stalled but warned that risks remained, including the continued killing of Palestinian civilians in Israeli strikes.

‘A ceasefire in fact under which civilians are still buried is not yet one that the people of Gaza can really feel,’ Mladenov said. ‘Every use of force that does not answer an immediate threat, and every incident that the deconfliction mechanism was not asked to resolve, costs this process something very hard to buy back.’

Mladenov acknowledged that Hamas had yet to fully meet its commitment to cease all military activities. ‘Every weapon carried, every tunnel still worked and every convoy still obstructed sets the process back and hands an argument to those who want to resume war,’ he added.

Under the new roadmap, Mladenov said, Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza would ‘follow verified decommissioning’ of Hamas weapons — this would be done under the supervision of a Palestinian technocratic committee established by the Board of Peace. ‘It is sequenced and reciprocal,’ he said.

Conflicting Interpretations of the Roadmap

This statement contrasts with comments made by President Trump’s envoy, Jared Kushner, who said Israeli withdrawal would be discussed only once the demilitarization of Gaza was ‘done,’ aligning more closely with Israel’s demands.

Israel’s representative to the Security Council reiterated the country’s commitment to the US-brokered plan for ending the Gaza war, while However, she stated that the plan could not succeed while Hamas still possessed weapons, tunnels, and other military infrastructure. ‘Disarmament must come first,’ she said.

The Palestinian representative accused Israel of killing Palestinian civilians with impunity in Gaza and called on the international community to protect them without delay.

Mladenov warned that if the ceasefire were 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.’ ‘That would not be a setback. It would be a point of no return for everyone,’ he said.

The war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. Israel responded with a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 73,430 people have been killed, according to the territory’s health ministry.