Palestinians gather around the site of an Israeli strike on a car that killed a man and a child, in Gaza, on Sept. 6, 2026. (Credit: Omar Al-Qatta/AFP)
The lack of progress on a peace deal for Gaza, combined with an upsurge in Israeli soldier and settler violence across the occupied West Bank, threatens to make the two-state solution "impossible," warned Nikolay Mladenov, the top envoy for Gaza from U.S. President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace" on Monday. "If the situation in Gaza endures or if there is no progress in implementing the peace plan..., the two-state solution will become practically impossible," the Bulgarian diplomat said from Abu Dhabi during the Hili Forum. "Given what is happening in the West Bank, and knowing that more than 50% of Gaza is now controlled by the Israeli military, with less than 50% under Hamas control, there is no credible path to a political resolution of the conflict," he added.
Trump is attempting to secure an agreement to turn the page on Israel's war on Gaza. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected last month the latest part of the plan, which had been accepted by Hamas and calls for a gradual Israeli withdrawal alongside the disarmament of the Islamist movement, according to the version released by the "Board of Peace."
This disarmament is to be supervised by the International Stabilization Force (ISF), a unit currently being formed and led by U.S. General Jasper Jeffers, which will deploy to Gaza when the situation calms down. "The only way to succeed is to establish transitional governance, proceed with disarmament, and withdraw [Israeli occupation troops] from Gaza," Mladenov emphasized.
On Sunday, special envoy and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, appeared to put some pressure on Israel by saying, on the sidelines of his trip to Ukraine, that the prospect of the upcoming legislative elections in the country was making its leaders "somewhat irrational." However, he said he "agreed with them on the final goal" of disarmament. "We are only now beginning to understand the scale of Gaza's militarization. It is beyond comprehension. One cannot enter if there are weapons. Therefore, disarmament will not be an easy task," he acknowledged.
Alongside Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, nearing three years, Israeli violence has soared in the West Bank since Oct. 7, with near-daily settler attacks and regular raids on Palestinian villages. Outside occupied East Jerusalem, which Israel has annexed since 1967, about three million Palestinians live in the Palestinian West Bank alongside more than 500,000 Israelis illegally residing in Jewish-only settlements.
