Board of Peace's Mladenov says Gaza, West Bank escalation makes two-state solution 'impossible'

ABU DHABI: A top official within the US-backed Board of Peace said on Monday (Sep 7) that a failure to move forward in Gaza paired with rising violence in the West Bank are making a two-state solution "impossible".

Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza under the US-backed "Board of Peace" tasked with implementing an October ceasefire plan, was speaking at the Hili Forum in Abu Dhabi.

"I would say that if Gaza continues the way it is now, or does not move into implementing ... the plan that we have under the comprehensive plan, the two-state solution will become practically impossible," he said.

"Because, with everything that is happening in the West Bank, and with more than 50 per cent of Gaza now under the control of the Israeli army and less than 50 per cent under the control of Hamas, there is no credible pathway forward to a political resolution of the conflict," he added.

A roadmap agreed by Hamas on Jul 30 said that the decommissioning of weapons would be supervised by the International Stabilization Force, the nascent unit that aims to deploy to Gaza if the situation calms. It is led by US Major General Jasper Jeffers.

Hamas had pledged to hand over its weapons to a new Palestinian governing body, an arrangement that brought skepticism from Netanyahu but which Trump hailed as a breakthrough.

The West Bank has also seen a surge in violence since the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip following Hamas's attack on Israel on Oct 7, 2023.

More than 500,000 Israelis live in illegal settlements in the Palestinian territory, home to some three million Palestinians.

"The only way that we can build back to that is if we have transitional governance, if we have decommissioning of weapons, if we have withdrawal in Gaza," he said.

On Sunday, Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a US envoy, told a press briefing in Kyiv that the upcoming Israeli elections were making Israeli leaders "a little irrational" on Gaza.

"We agree with them on the end state," Kushner said, referring to Israel. "They just have a crazy election and that makes them a little irrational in certain regards but we're very determined and we're working through these things."

"You can't go in if there's guns," he said, adding: "we're now starting to understand the scope of the militarisation of Gaza. It is beyond your comprehension. And so demilitarising it is not going to be easy."