Mladenov warns of a "point of no return" if ceasefire in Gaza collapses

The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nikolai Mladenov, warned that Gaza could reach a “point of no return” if the ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement Hamas in the Strip collapses. Speaking during a session of the UN Security Council, Mladenov said, “Gaza can no longer bear another catastrophe. If the ceasefire breaks down and the Strip slides back into a large-scale escalation, there will be no roadmap to return to, no administration to deploy, and nothing on the ground for reconstruction.” He added, “This will not be merely a setback, but a point of no return for everyone.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing a fierce electoral battle, had publicly rejected earlier in August a 15-point plan proposed by Mladenov, under which Hamas would agree to hand over its weapons to a new Palestinian committee tasked with administering the Gaza Strip.

Mladenov stressed that ongoing Israeli strikes threaten the ceasefire, stating that “every use of force that does not respond to an imminent threat, and every incident not addressed through the coordination mechanism, costs this process something that will be extremely difficult to recover.” He also expressed regret over what he described as Hamas’s continued violations of the ceasefire.

Mladenov noted that the second threat to the ceasefire is moving in the opposite direction. While Hamas has pledged to halt all military activities, this commitment has not yet been fully implemented. “Every weapon still held, every tunnel still under construction, every convoy still obstructed—all of this undermines the process and provides an excuse for those who wish to resume the war,” he said.

He concluded by noting that, as experience has shown, Palestinian civilians, including women and children, will bear the consequences.