It is my honour to give the Council an update on Gaza following the briefing given by High Representative Nickolay Mladenov in March. When Mr Mladenov spoke to this Council, he vividly described the horrors of the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and the devastation in Gaza following the conflict. I adopt that description and do not need to repeat it.
Instead, I shall focus on Gaza as it is now, and where we stand with the implementation of President Trump’s comprehensive 20-point plan endorsed in United Nations Security Council Resolution 2803.
The situation in Gaza remains precarious.
The war has stopped, violence has fallen dramatically but ceasefire violations continue.
Food assistance has improved. The Rafah Crossing is partially open, particularly for medical evacuations. More truckloads of humanitarian aid and commercial goods are entering Gaza to address basic needs. But much more must be done to improve shelter, health, water and sanitation. Life remains desperate for many. In one half of Gaza are the people and Hamas; in the other the Israel Defence Forces.
The hope resides in the substantial progress made in the implementation of the President’s plan, including the formation of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), the International Stabilisation Force (ISF), which has completed its pre-deployment assessment mission, and in funding for Gaza, with over $7 billion of firm pledges. The recent Ad Hoc Liaison Committee meeting, chaired by Norway, showed the breadth of support for Gaza and its people.
The critical demilitarisation talks with Hamas are continuing, led with immense effort by the mediators Egypt, Qatar and Turkey together with High Representative Mladenov and representatives of the Board of Peace.
We have reached a pivotal juncture.
I urge Council Members to provide clear and consistent political support for the implementation of the 20-point plan and mobilise financial contributions for the humanitarian response and recovery in Gaza through the UN and World Bank, in full coordination with the NCAG, backed by the Board of Peace.
The reason President Trump’s peace plan succeeded in bringing the war in Gaza to an end was that it was based on a strategically coherent framework.
It was clear after October 7 that Israel would never tolerate a situation in which the organisation responsible for it would continue in power. And clear also that a perpetual cycle of conflict would destroy any possibility of a decent future for Gaza’s people.
This was the worst but not the first Gaza conflict.
On previous occasions, they ended not in a solution but effectively in a series of truces. This time the scale of destruction and the determination of President Trump led us to propose something fundamentally different, harder and more ambitious, but which if done, will endure because it deals with the roots and not the manifestation of the issue.
This United States Administration has understood two very crucial things. Not just that Israel is entitled to protect its security; but that it will protect its security. Therefore, there will be no peace in Gaza unless the threat that it will be used as a launching pad for violence against Israel is ended; and the people of Gaza cannot prosper if pinned between the Israel Defence Forces on the one side and Hamas on the other.
The President’s plan has three elements to it:
Hamas, as presently constituted, can have no role in governing Gaza. Not directly running the government of Gaza. Not indirectly by retaining their weapons and therefore their power.
Were Hamas to change, to agree that the goal of a Palestinian State should be pursued through political negotiation and that such a State should live in peace with the State of Israel, it would be free to engage with the politics of Gaza as with any other party which accepts these internationally agreed principles. But until it does so, it cannot.
It follows from this that Hamas – and every other armed group in Gaza – should disarm, decommission weapons as part of a Palestinian-led process with monitored and verified implementation. The new Government of Gaza should be the sole legitimate authority with arms. This is expressly set out in the demilitarisation part of Resolution 2803.
Equally important but often overlooked: the plan also provides that if disarmament occurs, the network of restrictions on people and goods entering and leaving Gaza – in other words, what has made daily life for Gaza people so difficult and Gaza’s economic future so constrained – loses its rationale and should and will be lifted.
This is a huge prize for the people of Gaza. Plans for reconstruction being worked upon by the Board of Peace, the Office of the High Representative (OHR) and the NCAG are based on this premise. Gaza not rebuilt but reimagined. A port. Free movement of people and goods. Proper infrastructure. New housing. Fully able to access the digital economy.
But because trust is low and scepticism high, we need a transitional period where international support is necessary to help Gaza on its feet and disarmament happen in a manner Israel will accept.
This is why we established the NCAG, an apolitical transitional governing body of respected Palestinians with the highly capable Dr Ali Shaath as its head; the OHR under the excellent leadership of Nickolay Mladenov (who also liaises with the Palestinian Authority); an ISF to help give credibility to the new security arrangements, and a new Civil Police Force; with oversight from the Board of Peace which under American leadership binds together the key countries of the region along with many others.
We need Hamas to agree with the process of demilitarisation of Gaza and to abide by its terms. And we need Israel to abide by its obligations under that same process. Once there is agreement, that will unlock immediately vital progress for the people of Gaza: additional humanitarian aid and material; new medical facilities; greater freedom at the crossings including Rafah; the staged withdrawal of Israeli forces; and the entry into Gaza of the NCAG.
On the completion of the process, there will be the full withdrawal of Israeli forces in accordance with its terms and freedom for the Gaza people.
UNSC Resolution 2803 also references a political horizon: a time when a reformed Palestinian Authority resumes control of both Gaza and the West Bank; and the possibility of a pathway to a Palestinian State.
For many, adherence to this notion of two states is an article of faith. But truthfully many Israelis and Palestinians have given up believing it.
As I learnt in Northern Ireland, after years of bloodshed, people come to disbelieve. Trust is zero. Those who try to make peace, considered naive. But so is the notion of total victory.
In the 25 years I have been involved in this issue, in many different guises, the population of Israel has risen by over 50 per cent; that of the Palestinians by over 70 per cent. Neither people is going anywhere. The State of Israel will remain; and so will the Palestinian people.
Our task is to help the parties create the conditions for peaceful co-existence. That is why we devised this plan for Gaza. If implemented, its people can be prosperous and Israel secure. It is why we also need to address the urgent situation in the West Bank, so Palestinians there can share in that prosperity and peace.
If Israel is no longer under threat, there is no reason to deny the Palestinian people self-government. If the Palestinians know this is an attainable objective dependent on their own efforts, there is every reason to pursue that objective peacefully.
Gaza is the test. For all of us. Whether we repeat the history or change it.