The United Nations Security Council on Monday approved its first resolution endorsing a ceasefire plan aimed at ending eight months of conflict in the South and East China Seas. Israel and Hamas exist Gaza.
The U.S.-sponsored resolution welcomed a ceasefire proposal announced by U.S. President Joe Biden, which the U.S. said Israel had accepted. It called on the Palestinian militant group Hamas to accept the three-phase plan, which Hamas initially said was “positive” about.
Hamas welcomed the adoption of the resolution and said it was ready to work with mediators to negotiate with Israel through indirect talks to implement the resolution. This was one of the strongest statements Hamas has made so far, but stressed that the organization will continue to “struggle” to end the Israeli occupation and work towards the establishment of a “fully sovereign” Palestinian state.
The resolution, which was adopted by an overwhelming majority, with 14 of the 15 Security Council members voting in favor and Russia abstaining, calls on Israel and Hamas to “implement in full and without delay and conditions the terms of the resolution.”
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said after the vote that the Security Council had “sent a clear message to Hamas to accept the existing ceasefire,” reiterating that Israel had accepted the deal, which is backed by nations around the world.
“If Hamas could do the same, the fighting could stop today. I repeat, the fighting could stop today,” she told the Security Council.
Deputy U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood told reporters earlier Monday that the United States hopes all 15 Security Council members will support what he called “the best, most realistic chance of at least temporarily stopping this war.”
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It remains a question whether Israel and Hamas will agree to the three-phase ceasefire plan, but the resolution has strong support from the United Nations' most powerful body, which puts additional pressure on both sides to approve the proposal.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Biden had only made part of his proposal and insisted any talks on a permanent ceasefire were impossible until Hamas’s military and governing capacity were dismantled.
Earlier on Monday, leaders of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad met in Qatar to discuss a proposed ceasefire and said afterwards that any deal must achieve a permanent ceasefire, a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, an end to the Israeli siege of Gaza, reconstruction and a “serious exchange agreement” between Gaza hostages and Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
Ammar Benjama, Algeria's ambassador to the United Nations and Arab representative on the Security Council, said that although the text of the resolution is not perfect, “it brings a glimmer of hope to the Palestinians, because otherwise the Palestinian people will continue to suffer killings and suffering.”
“We voted in favor of this text in order to reach an agreement through diplomatic means and end the long-standing aggression against the Palestinian people,” Benjama said.
The conflict was triggered by a surprise attack by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, which killed about 1,200 people, most of them Israeli civilians, and took about 250 hostages. About 120 hostages are still being held, 43 of whom have been declared dead.
According to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, Israel's military offensive has killed more than 36,700 Palestinians and injured more than 83,000. Israel has also destroyed about 80% of Gaza's buildings, according to the United Nations.
The Security Council passed a resolution on March 25 calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The United States abstained from the vote, but the conflict has not stopped.
Monday’s resolution stressed the “importance of ongoing diplomatic efforts by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States to reach a comprehensive, three-phase ceasefire agreement.” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is making his eighth visit to the Middle East since October 7 to achieve this goal.
Biden's new plan, announced on May 31, states that it will first implement a six-month ceasefire, release hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, the Israeli army will withdraw from densely populated areas of Gaza, and Palestinian civilians will return to all areas of Gaza.
Phase one also calls for the safe distribution of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip “on a massive scale,” which Biden said would result in 600 truckloads of aid entering Gaza every day.
The resolution said that in the second stage, under the agreement between Israel and Hamas, “there will be a permanent end to hostilities, the release of all other hostages still in Gaza and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.”
The third phase will launch “a major multi-year reconstruction plan for Gaza and return the remains of all hostages still in Gaza to their families.”
The resolution reaffirmed the Council’s “unwavering commitment to the vision of a negotiated two-State solution, with two democratic States, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders.”
It also stresses the “importance of unifying the Gaza Strip and the West Bank under the leadership of the Palestinian Authority,” but Netanyahu's right-wing government has yet to agree to this.
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