Official leading Trump's Gaza ceasefire effort criticizes Israel for its attacks
The official leading President Trump's Gaza ceasefire plan has criticized Israel for ongoing military strikes, arguing they hinder the transition to civilian rule. While Hamas has agreed to disarm, Israel maintains that military pressure must continue until all weapons are surrendered.
Why it matters
This highlights a significant diplomatic friction point in the Trump administration's Middle East peace efforts and the ongoing instability in the region.
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.
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