Israel-Hamas truce failure ‘point of no return’, envoy warns

The failure of the Gaza ceasefire process would be a “point of no return”, the lead official for the enclave on United States President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace has warned.

Nickolay Mladenov, the board’s high representative for Gaza, made the remark on Wednesday in a statement to the United Nations Security Council.

The assertion followed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s public rejection of Trump’s 15-point peace plan that Washington says is aimed at ending Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

A resumption of fighting in Gaza would mean there would be “no roadmap to return to, there will be no administration to deploy and there will be nothing left on the ground to rebuild. That would not be a setback. It would be a point of no return for everyone,” Mladenov told the council.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health said at least 1,288 Palestinians have been killed and 4,290 wounded since a US-brokered “ceasefire” came into effect in October .

At least 73,422 Palestinians have been killed since attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian groups in southern Israel resulted in about 1,200 people killed and 240 taken captive on October 7, 2023. That same day, Israel began its war on Gaza.

Hamas agreed on July 30 to the Board of Peace roadmap aimed at moving the ceasefire plan forward. Under it, the decommissioning of weapons would be supervised by an International Stabilization Force, a nascent unit led by US Major General Jasper Jeffers that will be deployed to Gaza if the situation calms.

Hamas has pledged to hand over its weapons to a new Palestinian governing body, a framework that Netanyahu immediately opposed even as Trump hailed the plan as a breakthrough. This month, Netanyahu said Israel would not ⁠⁠withdraw any of its forces until Hamas ⁠⁠fully disarms.