UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council on Monday overwhelmingly approved its first-ever resolution endorsing a ceasefire plan aimed at ending an eight-month-long ceasefire. The war between Israel and Hamas In Gaza.
The US-sponsored resolution welcomes a ceasefire proposal announced by President Joe Biden, which the US says Israel has accepted. The resolution calls on the Palestinian militant group Hamas to accept a three-phase plan.
The resolution, approved by 14 of the 15 Security Council members with Russia abstaining, calls on Israel and Hamas to “fully implement the terms of the resolution without delay and without conditions.”
It remains unclear whether Israel and Hamas will agree to go ahead with the plan, but the UN’s highest power has strongly supported the resolution, putting further pressure on both parties to approve the proposal.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was in Israel. On Monday, he urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a post-war plan for Gaza and called for more international pressure on Hamas to agree to a ceasefire proposal. Netanyahu was skeptical of the deal, saying Israel remains committed to destroying Hamas.
Hamas welcomed the adoption of the resolution and said it was ready to work with mediators in indirect negotiations with Israel to implement it. The statement was one of the strongest Hamas has issued to date, but the group stressed that it will continue its struggle against the Israeli occupation and work for the establishment of a “fully sovereign” Palestinian state.
“Efforts are ongoing to examine and clarify several issues to ensure implementation by the Israeli side,” Hamas spokesman Jihad Taha said on Tuesday, adding that Israel was “buying time, delaying and creating obstacles to continue its aggression.”
A senior Israeli diplomat did not directly address the resolution but told the Security Council that Israel’s position remains firm: “We will continue until all hostages are returned and Hamas’ military and governing power is dismantled.”
“This also means that Israel will not engage in pointless and endless negotiations that Hamas could use as a way to buy time,” said envoy adviser Reut Shapir Ben Naftali.
But US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield reiterated that Israel had accepted the ceasefire agreement, which is backed by countries around the world.
He said the adoption of the resolution “sends a clear message to Hamas to accept the ceasefire agreement that is offered to them.”
“If Hamas were to do the same, the fighting could stop today,” Thomas-Greenfield told the council. “I repeat, this fighting could stop today.”
Deputy U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood told reporters early Monday that the United States sees the agreement as “the best and most realistic opportunity to bring about at least a temporary halt to this war.”
Leaders of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad met in Qatar early Monday to discuss a proposed ceasefire agreement, after which they said any deal must lead to a permanent ceasefire, a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, reconstruction and “serious exchange agreements” between Gaza hostages and Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
Russia’s UN ambassador, Vasily Nebenzia, said Moscow abstained because details of the three-phase plan had not been made clear and “there are many questions.”
“Hamas has been asked to accept this so-called agreement, but there is still no clear information from Israel about a formal agreement,” Nebenzia said. “Given Israel’s many statements that it will prolong the war until Hamas is completely defeated, what specifically has Israel agreed to?”
Algeria’s UN Ambassador Ammar Benjama, the Arab representative on the Security Council, said the document was not perfect but “it gives Palestinians a ray of hope because otherwise the killing and suffering of Palestinians would just continue.”
“We voted in favor of this document to give diplomacy a chance to reach an agreement and end the aggression against the Palestinian people that has gone on for far too long,” Benjama said.
This war is Hamas October 7th: Surprise attack in southern Israel In this incident, the militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, and took about 250 hostages. About 120 hostages remain, and 43 have been announced as dead.
Israeli attacks have killed more than 36,700 Palestinians and injured more than 83,000. Gaza Ministry of HealthAccording to the United Nations, about 80 percent of buildings in the Gaza Strip have also been destroyed.
The Security Council adopted a resolution on March 25 calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but the United States abstained, but the war was not halted.
Monday’s resolution, “by Egypt, Qatar, the U.S. Comprehensive Ceasefire AgreementIt will consist of three phases,” he said, adding that the three countries were ready to “work to ensure that negotiations continue until a full agreement is reached.”
The new proposal, announced by President Biden on May 31, would begin with a six-week ceasefire, the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip, and the return of Palestinian civilians to the entire Gaza Strip.
The first phase also calls for the safe distribution of humanitarian assistance “at scale across the Gaza Strip,” which Biden said would see 600 trucks carrying aid enter Gaza each day.
The second phase, the resolution said, would involve an agreement between Israel and Hamas “for a permanent cessation of hostilities in exchange for the release of all other hostages remaining in Gaza and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.”
The third phase will see the start of “a large-scale, multi-year reconstruction plan for Gaza and the return of the remains of hostages remaining in Gaza to their families.”
The resolution reiterates the Security Council’s “unwavering determination to achieve the vision of a negotiated two-state solution in which two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders.”
The report also stresses “the importance of uniting the Gaza Strip and the West Bank under a Palestinian Authority”, something that Netanyahu’s right-wing government does not agree with.
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Associated Press writer Bassem Mrou contributed to this report from Beirut.
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This article has been corrected to show that the first phase of the proposed ceasefire would last six weeks, not six months.
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See AP’s Gaza war coverage below: https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
