Alakbarov: More than 10 months into the ceasefire, this situation is unacceptable

Deputy Special Coordinator and Resident Coordinator at the Office of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Ramiz Alakbarov, updated Council members on recent developments in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, where settlement expansion and settler violence have continued at historically high levels.

“As talks continue on the implementation of resolution 2803 (2025) and the Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict, the ceasefire remains fragile,” said Acting Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov.

He said Israeli strikes on Gaza are ongoing and situation in the West Bank "continues to rapidly deteriorate".

Full implementation of the 15-point Roadmap would advance the Plan’s transitional arrangements.  They include disarming Hamas and all other armed groups, the withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces from Gaza, deployment of the International Stabilization Force and the transfer of transitional governance responsibilities to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza. 

“I urge all parties to build on this momentum, fulfil their commitments and advance the Roadmap in accordance with international law,” he said.

Also paramount is addressing the dire plight of the people in Gaza.  “They are losing hope,” he said.

Israeli air strikes in Gaza resumed on 12 August after a week-long lull, while military activity including shelling, drone attacks and ground operations never stopped.  During the reporting period, over 100 Palestinians were killed and over 400 injured, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. 

Around two thirds of Gaza remain inaccessible or subject to severe access restrictions, and the 2026 Flash Appeal for humanitarian aid is only 40 per cent funded. 

“More than 10 months into the ceasefire, this situation is unacceptable,” he said.  Key bottlenecks must be addressed and “human dignity must be at the centre of all efforts”.

In the West Bank, large-scale settler attacks continue “with virtually no accountability for these crimes”.

On 18 August, the Israeli authorities opened bidding for over 1,200 illegal housing units in the E1 area east of Jerusalem.  “If implemented, the E1 plan will effectively sever the northern and southern parts of the West Bank and its connection to East Jerusalem, eroding prospects for a viable Palestinian State,” he said.

On Tuesday, the Israeli authorities forcibly entered and unlawfully seized the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Kalandia Training Centre in East Jerusalem. 

“I reiterate my call on Israel to act in accordance with its obligations under international law.  All efforts to seize, control or expropriate UNRWA facilities must cease,” he said.  

Fully implement 15-point Roadmap, Board of Peace urges

“Indeed, it is a historic breakthrough.  For the first time, Hamas and the armed factions in Gaza have agreed to hand over their weapons and to transfer full governing authority, civilian and security to a transitional administration recognized by the United Nations,” said Board of Peace High Representative for Gaza Nickolay Mladenov.

“We now have the opportunity to dramatically improve life in a sustainable way for Palestinians in Gaza; to provide durable security for Israelis; and to move from a conflict that has destabilized the region to an environment that offers peace, prosperity and economic opportunity for the entire Middle East,” he said. 

The Roadmap does not replace or contradict the Comprehensive Plan or Council resolution 2803 (2025).  “There is no grey zone and no category left out,” he said, and it contains three things that did not exist at any point in the past 20 years. 

“The first is acceptance,” he said, by Hamas requiring its complete demilitarization and hand-over of governance in Gaza.

The second is agreement on a key principle: "One Authority, One Law, One Weapon"; and the third is “Progress is performance-based, not calendar-based”, with one phase opening only when the previous one has been certified as completed. 

“What has been agreed on paper will matter only if it is translated into verified action,” he said.

Addressing skepticism of the Roadmap, he said:  “I have yet to hear an alternative plan.  Yet, I see only two choices.”

The first is Israeli reoccupation of Gaza, with one party governing 2 million people at a massive human, economic and reputational cost.  The second is to allow the status quo that produced 7 October 2023, and everything that has followed it, to quietly reassemble itself:  a Gaza in which Hamas is neither disarmed nor removed from governance, but managed — contained by periodic force. 

"What remains is a choice.  A Gaza disarmed, rebuilt and reconnected to the world.  Or a Gaza rearmed, divided and in rubble, with a radicalized generation raised inside it and the next war already on the horizon," he said.   

“The responsible choice is clear,” he said.

'Improvements' in Gaza not cause for celebration, civil society says 

“Yes, the latest IPC figures show we have clawed our way back from an engineered famine in Gaza, but it is a disturbing marker of 'progress' to celebrate that a child that may no longer be at imminent risk of starving to death may still be killed at any moment from shelling, air strikes or gunfire, or may survive only to carry the consequences of hunger, devastation and deprivation for the rest of their life,” said Athena Rayburn, Executive Director of the Association of International Development Agencies.

Aid getting into Gaza does not negate that “we have normalized a situation in which 2 million people are trapped and dependent on humanitarian assistance that is controlled and restricted by the State that has designed this scarcity”.

 What is needed is sustained humanitarian access, delivery of basic services, recovery and “the creation of conditions in which people in Gaza can begin to live rather than just survive the next 24 hours”.  

Success must be measured by whether the Board of Peace, international stabilization force and National Committee for the Administration of Gaza provide immediate protection for civilians; and in the long term, whether they move Gaza towards the required legal endpoint:  The end of Israel’s unlawful presence and realization of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.

“By these basic measure, the Board of Peace is failing,” she said.

It has further entrenched Israel's unlawful presence and has allowed Israeli authorities to “deregister over 30 international organizations renowned for their capacity to deliver assistance worldwide in some of the most complex crises on earth".

“Are you able to satisfy yourselves that you are clear about the facts on the ground?  The trajectory of the situation in Gaza?  Are you clear on the reasons why we are almost one year into the so-called ‘ceasefire’ and still advocating on the necessity of engine oil and fresh produce?”, she asked.

“Are you clear on the intentions for the ‘planned communities’ being constructed in the south of Gaza under your mandate, and their compatibility with your obligations to ensure the protection of Palestinians' fundamental rights?  

She encouraged the Council to undertake an urgent mission to Gaza.  “Let the reality on the ground, the facts, our colleagues and Palestinians speak to you themselves.  We are here and we are ready to receive you,” she stressed.