UNITED NATIONS — Violence and incitement, settlement expansion and a lack of control of Gaza by the Palestinian Authority are undermining hope for Middle East peace, a senior U.N. official said on Thursday, citing a report by the Middle East peace “Quartet.”

U.N. Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov briefed the U.N. Security Council on Thursday on an eagerly awaited report by the Quartet of sponsors of the stalled Middle East peace process: the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.

“The main objective of this report is not about assigning blame,” Mladenov told the 15-member council. “It focuses on the major threats to achieving a negotiated peace and offers recommendations on the way forward.”

The Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in a 1967 war. The last round of peace talks broke down in April 2014 and Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged in recent months.

A Palestinian fatally stabbed a 13-year-old Israeli girl in her bedroom in a settlement in the West Bank on Thursday.

Mladenov said the Quartet report concluded that continuing violence, “terrorism” and incitement; Israeli settlement expansion and a lack of control of Gaza by the Palestinian Authority “severely undermine hope for peace.”

“These negative trends can and must be urgently reversed in order to advance be two state solution on ground,” he said.