Get you up to speed: Board of Peace envoy warns ‘permanent’ Gaza divide under current status quo
An Israeli drone attack killed a 26-year-old man in Gaza’s al-Mahatta area, east of Deir el-Balah city, on Thursday, according to Wafa news agency. The attack follows warnings from UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov about the risks of a permanent Gaza divide due to the deteriorating status quo.
The United Nations Security Council has been urged to advocate for Israeli compliance and Hamas disarmament following a ceasefire roadmap presented by Nickolay Mladenov. Despite the ceasefire in October 2025, recent reports indicate an escalation in Israeli attacks and settler violence in the region, raising concerns over the humanitarian situation and reconstruction efforts in Gaza.
Nickolay Mladenov, high representative of the Board of Peace for Gaza, urged the UN Security Council to use “every means at its disposal” to press for Hamas disarmament and Israel‘s adherence to ceasefire commitments. The transition to the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire roadmap, which includes disarmament and the establishment of a Palestinian technocratic panel, remains stalled amid ongoing conflict and global distractions.
What remains unclear — The timeline for transitioning to the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire remains unspecified amid ongoing global distractions, especially whilst Israel keeps breaking the terms of the first ceasefire agreement. Additionally, no independent journalists or humanitarian aid personnel are still allowed to enter Gaza.
Board of Peace envoy warns current Gaza situation risks becoming permanent
News|Gaza Board of Peace envoy warns ‘permanent’ Gaza divide under current status quo
UN Security Council urged to press for Israeli obligations and Hamas disarmament under Gaza ‘ceasefire’ roadmap.
United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nikolay Mladenov, on screen, addresses the UN Security Council [File: Richard Drew/AP]
The high representative overseeing the United States-founded Board of Peace for Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, has warned that the deteriorating status quo in the devastated Palestinian enclave risks becoming “permanent”.
Speaking on Thursday to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), Mladenov presented a roadmap detailing obligations for Israel and Hamas to implement a permanent ceasefire. He urged the UNSC to use “every means at its disposal” to press Hamas to disarm, while also saying that Israel must uphold its commitment under a ceasefire agreed in October.
“Let me say this clearly: the implementation cannot advance through Palestinian obligations alone,” Mladenov said, speaking via video call.
“The continued killings and Israeli restrictions affecting humanitarian flows are not abstract issues,” he said.
The war that Israel launched following the October 7, 2023 attacks on southern Israel by Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups was halted by a ceasefire in October 2025. More than 72,775 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict. But the Israeli military maintains a strict security regime, and many hundreds more have been killed in the past seven months. On Thursday, an Israeli drone attack killed a 26-year-old in Gaza’s al-Mahatta area, east of Deir el-Balah city, according to Wafa news agency.
Conflict monitors warn that since the ceasefire in the US-Israel war on Iran was struck last month, Israeli bombardment of Gaza has accelerated. Violent raids by settlers and the military in the occupied West Bank have also been increasing.
Israel has no respect for International law
Mladenov, a veteran Bulgarian diplomat, warned of the risks of inaction by both parties.
“The risk is that the deteriorating status quo becomes permanent: a divided Gaza, Hamas holding military and administrative control over two million people across less than half the territory.
“Those people are likely to remain trapped in the rubble, dependent on aid with no meaningful reconstruction, because reconstruction financing will not follow where weapons have not been laid down,” Mladenov said.
“And the result? Another generation growing up in tents in fear, with despair as the most rational thing for them to feel.”
This, he said, is a scenario that Israelis, Palestinians and the region “should all fear and mobilise to avoid”.
In January, the US announced that the Gaza “ceasefire” was moving to phase two, which is supposed to focus on Hamas’s disarmament, long-term governance and the establishment of a panel of Palestinian technocrats to lead post-war Gaza. It also calls for the gradual retreat of the Israeli army, which still controls more than 50 percent of the Palestinian territory, and the deployment of an international stabilising force.
But with the war in Iran drawing the world’s attention amid a global energy crisis, the transition to the second phase has been stalled for weeks.