Abu Dhabi (TDI): Escalating violence in the West Bank and a lack of progress in implementing a Gaza ceasefire plan are threatening to make a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “practically impossible”, a senior official with the US-backed Board of Peace said Monday.
Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, said the situation on the ground was leaving little room for a credible political path toward resolving the conflict, AFP reported.
Speaking at the Hili Forum in Abu Dhabi, Mladenov said failure to move Gaza into the next phase of the October 2025 ceasefire plan, combined with developments in the West Bank, could ultimately make the creation of a Palestinian state unachievable.
He said more than half of Gaza is currently under the control of the Israeli military, while the remaining territory is controlled by Hamas, leaving no clear pathway toward a political settlement.
A roadmap agreed by Hamas on July 30 calls for the group’s weapons to be decommissioned under the supervision of the International Stabilization Force, a proposed multinational force that could deploy to Gaza if security conditions improve. The force is led by US Major General Jasper Jeffers.
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Under the proposed arrangement, Hamas would hand over its weapons to a new Palestinian governing body. US President Donald Trump has described the move as a major breakthrough, although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed scepticism.
Mladenov said restoring a political pathway would require transitional governance in Gaza, the decommissioning of weapons and an Israeli military withdrawal.
The occupied West Bank has also experienced a sharp increase in violence since the Gaza war began following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the occupied territory, alongside around three million Palestinians.
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Mladenov warned that continued expansion of the conflict and deteriorating conditions in the West Bank were further undermining prospects for a negotiated two-state settlement.
