Official leading Trump's Gaza ceasefire effort criticizes Israel for its attacks

Palestinians walk past a food-aid warehouse damaged in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a nearby house in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026. Abdel Kareem Hana/AP hide caption

UNITED NATIONS — The official in charge of President Donald Trump's ceasefire plan for Gaza criticized Israel on Wednesday for its attacks on the war-battered Palestinian territory and warned that the alternative to the U.S. proposal is the next war.

Nikolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace high representative, insisted to the U.N. Security Council that Trump's 20-point plan has not stalled and "has moved from the negotiating table to the engineering table."

The militant group Hamas has agreed to the proposal's key provision to disarm and turn Gaza over to civilian rule, he said. But Israel's ongoing strikes since last October's ceasefire are still killing Palestinians — though much fewer — and Gazans can't feel that the conflict is ending, he said.

"After three years of war and 20 years of military operations, I ask, will another strike on a munitions depot stop Hamas from rearming or tightening its grip on Gaza?" Mladenov said. "It will not. It only delays the demilitarization that would happen" and obstructs the transfer to a civilian government.

A recent U.S. deal with Hamas to disarm was seen as a potential breakthrough to end the war, which was sparked by the militant group's deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in southern Israel. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his forces won't withdraw from their current lines in Gaza until Hamas has handed over all its weapons.

Mladenov said that at a meeting he took part in last week with Netanyahu and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and adviser, "we went through his government's concerns one by one and narrowed the areas that still require technical work."

Israel's deputy U.N. ambassador, Noa Furman, reiterated to the Security Council his country's commitment to Trump's plan, but stressed that it can't succeed while Hamas remains armed. He said Israel is working closely with the U.S. to achieve Hamas' disarmament.