Gaza risks ‘permanent’ state of limbo if transition plan stalls, Security Council hears

Ramiz Alakbarov, UN Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said the situation across the Occupied Palestinian Territory was becoming “increasingly precarious”, with mounting violence in both Gaza and the West Bank. “In Gaza, delays in the implementation of resolution 2803, alongside daily violence and a continuing humanitarian crisis, have replaced the early momentum following the ceasefire,” he said. The resolution adopted last November endorsed the US peace plan to end the conflict, authorising the Board of Peace transitional authority and backing an International Stabilization Force, paving the way for Israeli withdrawal. Read more about the resolution here. While negotiations on the next phase of the October ceasefire continue, Mr. Alakbarov warned against any return to full-scale fighting. “The people of Gaza cannot take more war,” he said. “This scenario must be avoided at all costs.” Dire needs continue Humanitarian conditions in Gaza remain severe. Nearly a million people across the enclave still need urgent shelter assistance, while most of the population remains displaced. Major funding and operational constraints still frustrate the aid effort, including delays at checkpoints, damaged roads and restrictions on critical supplies entering the territory. The UN-coordinated 2026 Flash Appeal, which seeks more than $4 billion to support nearly three million people across Gaza and the West Bank, is only around 13 per cent funded. UN Photo/Manuel Elías ‘No recovery’ yet Nickolay Mladenov, the Board’s High Representative for Gaza – and Special Coordinator for the UN in the region until the end of 2020 – told ambassadors that while the ceasefire had significantly reduced violence and improved aid access, “there is no recovery” yet in Gaza. “Around 80 per cent of the buildings in Gaza are damaged or destroyed,” he said. “More than a million people have no permanent shelter. They are living, this morning, in tents and in the broken shells of buildings.” Plan based on ‘reciprocity’ He said the proposed roadmap for implementing the transition plan was based on “reciprocity” – with each step by one side triggering obligations by the other – and stressed that Hamas and all armed groups must eventually be disarmed under Palestinian authority. “No Palestinian armed group will be required to transfer weapons to Israel,” he said. “They pass to the NCAG,” referring to the proposed Committee for the Administration of Gaza. The roadmap also envisions a phased Israeli withdrawal tied to verified progress on decommissioning weapons and deployment of the stabilization force. Mladenov warned that failure to move forward risked entrenching a divided and devastated Gaza. “The risk is that the deteriorating status quo becomes permanent,” he said. “Another generation of children growing up in tents, in fear, with despair as the most rational thing for them to feel.” UN Photo/Loey Felipe Attacks and West Bank land grabs intensify Alongside the crisis in Gaza, Mr. Alakbarov warned of worsening violence and settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. He said Israeli planning authorities had recently advanced plans for more than 2,200 new settlement housing units, while attacks by settlers against Palestinian communities had intensified sharply this year. “Some 220 Palestinian communities have faced attacks,” he said, adding that the violence was increasingly displacing entire communities. The envoy also noted the recent Israeli government plans concerning the UNRWA compound in Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, following an earlier seizure of the site. “The Secretary-General strongly condemned this decision,” he said. Ceasefire ‘yet to bring safety’ The Council also heard an account from Rami Hijjo of the Palestine Red Crescent Society, who described the daily struggle for survival inside Gaza amid continued bombardment, displacement and severe shortages. “I stand before you today as a civilian and a humanitarian worker who lives in Gaza,” he said. “The ceasefire has yet to bring safety.” Hijjo described repeated displacement, collapsing health services and mounting risks faced by humanitarian workers, including the killing of Palestinian Red Crescent medics earlier this year. “No amount of creativity can fully overcome the occupational, systematic and deliberate restrictions designed to make life unbearable for all civilians and all those trying to help them,” he told ambassadors. A crucial opportunity Despite the bleak assessments, Mr. Alakbarov insisted the current ceasefire framework still represented the best opportunity to prevent renewed large-scale war and begin rebuilding Gaza. He warned that without urgent progress on making resolution 2803 a reality, the situation would only grow more dire. He called for “collective responsibility” to prevail with Israeli and Palestinian leaders returning to the path of a two-State solution. For a detailed report on where key countrie