New York: The United Nations Security Council on Monday overwhelmingly approved a resolution endorsing a ceasefire plan between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip that calls on Palestinian militants to accept the deal aimed at ending the eight-month war. The proposal was outlined by US President Joe Biden, who described it as an Israeli initiative, and the resolution was adopted in a 14-1 vote in its favour.
Russia abstained from the UN vote, while the remaining 14 Security Council members voted in favour of the resolution supporting a three-phase ceasefire plan laid out by Biden on May 31. "Today we voted for peace," US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council after the vote. The resolution called on Israel and Hamas to "fully implement its terms without delay and without condition".
The resolution welcomes the new ceasefire proposal and states that Israel has accepted it. In a signal that the war may be nearing an end, Hamas welcomed the adoption of the US-drafted resolution and said in a statement that it is ready to cooperate with mediators over implementing the principles of the plan "that are consistent with the demands of our people and resistance."
Israel's position over the ceasefire proposal
As per the new proposal, the first phase would include a six-week ceasefire, where Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza population centres, and hostages, including the elderly and women, would be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Palestinian civilians would return to Gaza, including northern Gaza, and 600 trucks would bring humanitarian aid into Gaza each day, Biden said.
In the second phase, Hamas and Israel would negotiate terms of a permanent end to hostilities. "The ceasefire will still continue as long as negotiations continue," the president said, a new development. The third phase would include a major reconstruction plan for Gaza. Biden said the proposal has been relayed to Hamas by Qatar.
However, Russia's UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the proposal did not contain enough detail and questioned what Israel had specifically agreed to and said the Security Council should not be signing up to agreements with 'vague parameters'. "We did not wish to block the resolution simply because it, as much as we understand, is supported by the Arab world," he said.
Israel's UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan was present for the vote but did not address the council. Instead, senior Israeli UN diplomat Reut Shapir Ben Naftaly told the body that Israel's goals in Gaza had always been clear. "Israel is committed to these goals - to free all the hostages, to destroy Hamas' military and governing capabilities and to ensure that Gaza does not pose a threat to Israel in the future," she said. "It is Hamas that is preventing this war from ending. Hamas and Hamas alone."
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Israel on Monday, where he urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the plan for postwar Gaza as he pushed for more international pressure on Hamas to agree to the cease-fire proposal. Netanyahu has been sceptical of the deal, saying that Israel is still committed to destroying Hamas.
Can it stop the Israel-Hamas war?
For months, negotiators from the US, Egypt and Qatar have been trying to mediate a ceasefire. Hamas says it wants a permanent end to the war in the Gaza Strip and Israeli withdrawal from the enclave of 2.3 million people. The UN Security Council in March demanded an immediate ceasefire and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas, but the war did not stop.
Earlier on Monday, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders met in Qatar to discuss the proposed ceasefire deal and said later that any deal must lead to a permanent ceasefire, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, reconstruction and “a serious exchange deal” between hostages in Gaza and Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
The war was sparked by Hamas’ surprise October 7 attack in southern Israel in which militants killed about 1,200 people, mainly Israeli civilians, and took about 250 others hostage. About 120 hostages remain, with 43 pronounced dead. Israel’s military offensive has killed more than 36,700 Palestinians and wounded more than 83,000 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
(with inputs from agencies)
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