The U.S. official overseeing President Donald Trump’s Gaza cease-fire plan criticized Israel on Wednesday over its continued attacks on the devastated Palestinian territory, warning that failure to advance Washington’s proposal could pave the way for another war.
Nikolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace high representative, insisted to the U.N. Security Council that Trump's 20-point plan has not stalled and "has moved from the negotiating table to the engineering table.”
The Palestinian resistance group Hamas has agreed to the proposal’s key provision to disarm and turn Gaza over to civilian rule, he said. But Israel’s ongoing strikes since last October’s cease-fire are still killing Palestinians - though much fewer - and Gazans can’t feel that the conflict is ending, he said.
"After three years of war and 20 years of military operations, I ask, will another strike on a munitions depot stop Hamas from rearming or tightening its grip on Gaza?" Mladenov said. "It will not. It only delays the demilitarization that would happen” and obstructs the transfer to a civilian government.
A recent U.S. deal with Hamas to disarm was seen as a potential breakthrough to end the war. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his forces won’t withdraw from their current lines in Gaza until Hamas has handed over all its weapons.
Mladenov said that at a meeting he took part in last week with Netanyahu and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, "we went through his government’s concerns one by one and narrowed the areas that still require technical work.”
Israel’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Noa Furman, reiterated to the Security Council her country’s "commitment" to Trump’s plan, but stressed that it can’t succeed while Hamas remains armed. She said Israel is working closely with the U.S. to achieve Hamas’ disarmament.
The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Mike Waltz, said concerns about Trump's plan are being addressed and Hamas' disarmament will be judged on its actions.
Mladenov warned of the distance between the roadmap and what’s happening on the ground, and said if war resumes, there won’t be a roadmap to return to or anything left on the ground to rebuild.
"That would not be a setback,” he said. "It would be a point of no return for everyone.”
Mladenov stressed the need for political will to overcome the differences and said there is a choice to be made: "A Gaza disarmed, rebuilt and reconnected to the world. Or a Gaza rearmed, divided and in rubble, with a radicalized generation raised inside it and the next war already on the horizon."
As for the Palestinians, Mladenov said, the Trump plan includes a "credible pathway to a political horizon" and a two-state solution to the decades-old conflict. Netanyahu vehemently opposes a Palestinian state.
