Nickolay Mladenov, a senior envoy for the U.S.-founded Gaza Peace Council, warned on Thursday that the ongoing deterioration in the Palestinian territory risks becoming 'permanent.'
Addressing the UN Security Council, Mladenov outlined a roadmap detailing the obligations of both Israel and Hamas to implement a lasting ceasefire. He urged the council to use 'every possible measure' to pressure Hamas to disarm, while stressing that Israel must also comply with commitments under the ceasefire agreement reached in October.
'Let me be clear: implementation cannot advance solely through Palestinian obligations,' Mladenov said via video link.
'The continued killings and Israeli restrictions affecting humanitarian aid flows are not abstract issues,' he stressed.
Israel's war, launched after the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, paused with a ceasefire in October 2025. More than 72,775 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict. However, the Israeli military maintains a tight security regime, and hundreds more have died in the past seven months. According to the Wafa news agency, an Israeli drone strike on Thursday killed a 26-year-old man in the al-Mahatta area east of Deir el-Balah.
Conflict monitors warn that since the ceasefire in the U.S.-Israel-Iran war was signed last month, Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have accelerated. Violent settler and military raids in the occupied West Bank have also increased.
Mladenov, a veteran Bulgarian diplomat, warned of the risks if both sides fail to act.
'The risk is that the current deterioration becomes permanent: a fragmented Gaza, with Hamas retaining military and administrative control over more than two million people on less than half the territory,' he said.
'Those people are likely to remain stuck in the rubble, dependent on aid without significant reconstruction, because reconstruction financing will not be provided while weapons remain,' Mladenov warned.
'And the result? Another generation growing up in tents, with fear and despair as the most rational emotions they can feel,' he added.
He described this as a scenario that Israelis, Palestinians, and the entire region 'should fear and mobilize to avoid.'
In January, the United States declared that the Gaza ceasefire had moved to phase two, which focuses on disarming Hamas, long-term governance, and establishing a Palestinian technocratic expert council to lead post-war Gaza. This phase also calls for a gradual withdrawal of the Israeli military—still controlling more than 50% of Palestinian territory—and the deployment of an international stabilization force.
However, as the war in Iran draws global attention amid an energy crisis, the transition to phase two has stalled for weeks.
