Ramiz Alakbarov, the new Deputy Special Coordinator and Resident Coordinator, Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. Photo courtesy of UN.
Alakbarov briefed the 15-member Council on Monday, delivering an update to the UN Security Council on the implementation of resolution 2334 concerning settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.
He also focused much of his briefing on the implementation of resolution 2803 (2025), through which the Council endorsed the United States-facilitated Comprehensive Peace Plan in Gaza in October 2025 and authorized the deployment of an international stabilization force.
“The legitimate needs, concerns and aspirations of the people of Gaza must be addressed through the full implementation of [that resolution],” stressed the Deputy Special Coordinator. “Instead, the situations in both Gaza and the West Bank have remained volatile.”
He said that Israeli air strikes and military operations have continued across Gaza, resulting in further fatalities and bringing the total killed since the ceasefire to over 1,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Meanwhile, he said, Israeli occupation forces continue to expand their territorial control, now holding approximately 70 percent of the Strip. “This encroachment of areas under Israeli control is reducing the space available to civilians,” he said. “Palestinians in Gaza are concentrated in increasingly limited areas, living amid insecurity and violence.”
Turning attention to the ceasefire announced eight months ago in Gaza, he said that the strip still faces profound uncertainty and immense human suffering.
“I condemn the continued killing and injury of civilians in Gaza, including women and children,” he said. He also expressed particular concern over the recent increasing calls for a resumption of widespread hostilities in Gaza.
Turning to the West Bank, where the situation continues to deteriorate, he said Israeli military activity continued in Jenin, displacing Palestinians. He voiced concern over escalating violence in the West Bank, adding: “I am appalled at the numerous instances in which officials glorified violence and engaged in dangerous provocations, incitement and inflammatory language.”
He strongly condemned Israel’s plan to establish military facilities at the Sheikh Jarrah compound of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), in East Jerusalem, and urged it to rescind that decision.
In mid-June, another independent UN commission concluded that Israel has been committing genocide against Palestinian children in Gaza, documenting a systematic campaign of killing, torture, starvation, and sexual violence that a doctor said had destroyed "the essence of childhood."
The 94-page report, published on 18 June and covering events from October 2023 through 31 March 2026, concludes on reasonable grounds that Israeli occupation forces committed genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes against Palestinian children.
The report names specific military units, including the Kfir Brigade, the 162nd Division, and the 98th Division, as bearing responsibility for documented killings.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, found that Israel has killed at least 20,179 Palestinian children and wounded 44,143 in Gaza between 7 October 2023 and 7 October 2025, representing 30 percent of all those killed during that period.
In mid-June, UNICEF also said at least 265 Palestinian children had been killed in Gaza since a ceasefire was announced in October 2025, describing the truce as a "cruel and deadly illusion" for children living in the territory.
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