The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution Monday calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip for the remaining weeks of Ramadan, breaking a five-month stalemate during which the United States vetoed three calls to stop fighting.
The resolution was adopted by a vote of 14 to 1, with the United States abstaining, which U.S. officials said was passed in part because the resolution didn’t condemn Hamas. In addition to a ceasefire, the resolution also called for the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages” and the abolition of “all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately criticized the United States for allowing the resolution to pass and ordered a delegation scheduled to go to Washington for high-level talks with American officials to stay in Israel as a substitute. President Biden requested these meetings to debate alternatives to a planned Israeli offensive in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza where greater than one million people have sought refuge. US officials say such an operation would cause a humanitarian disaster.
Netanyahu’s office called the U.S. abstention “a clear departure from the consistent U.S. position on the Security Council since the beginning of the war” and said it “damages both the war effort and efforts to free the hostages.”
Top Israeli officials have indicated they’ll not implement the resolution for now. “The State of Israel will not stop shooting. We will destroy Hamas and continue the fight until the last hostage returns home,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote on social media.
Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, who has already been in Washington for meetings with top Biden administration officials, similarly gave no indication that Israel would implement a ceasefire.
“We will act against Hamas everywhere – including where we have not been before,” he said. He added: “We have no moral right to stop the war while hostages are still being held in Gaza.”
The White House has sought to ease the growing rift with Israel. John F. Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, insisted there had been no change in U.S. policy. He said no official notification had been received that the entire Israeli delegation would not be coming to Washington, but added: “We looked forward to the opportunity to talk with the delegation at the end of the week about exploring feasible options and alternatives for the important offensive post in Rafah.”
“We felt we had valuable lessons to share,” Kirby said. He noted that Gallant continues to be expected to satisfy with Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan, in addition to Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III.
The adoption of the resolution was greeted with applause in the Security Council.
“Finally, the Security Council has shouldered its responsibility,” said Amar Bendjama, Algeria’s ambassador to the United Nations and the only Arab member of the council. “He is finally answering the calls of the international community.”
The resolution, proposed by 10 non-permanent members of the Council, was the subject of intense negotiations until the last minute, with the United States asking for amendments to the text.
Taking shelter in a tent in Rafah, 37-year-old Mohammed Radi said that after many months of fighting, the vision of ending the war was his dream.
“The situation has not changed and I don’t see people celebrating,” he said by phone when asked about the resolution. “We are still at war.”
António Guterres, the UN secretary-general who’s attending a gathering in the Middle East with Arab leaders on the war, said in a social media post that “this resolution should be implemented. Failure can be unforgivable.”
The United States has rarely broken with Israel on the Security Council in recent years. In 2009, towards the end of George W. Bush’s presidency, the United States abstained from voting on a ceasefire resolution over the previous war in Gaza. Under President Barack Obama, she abstained from voting on the 2016 resolution on Israeli settlements. Three months ago, it abstained again on a resolution on humanitarian aid for Gaza.
“The key variable is that the Biden administration is clearly not happy with Israel’s military posture at the moment, and adopting this resolution was a relatively mild way of signaling its concern,” said Richard Gowan, a U.N. expert on the international crisis group. “But the abstention is a not-so-coded cue for Netanyahu to stop operations, primarily in Rafah.”
Since the starting of the war, the United States has vetoed three previous resolutions calling for a ceasefire, agreeing with Israel’s position that it has the right to defend itself, that a everlasting ceasefire would profit Hamas and that such a resolution could jeopardize the diplomacy of the talk. Those vetoes enraged many diplomats and U.N. officials as the civilian death toll in the war rose and created rifts with staunch U.S. allies in Europe, including France.
Russia and China then vetoed two alternative resolutions recommend by the United States, the last one last Friday, because they said the proposals didn’t explicitly demand a ceasefire.
The United States has been sharply criticized by many leaders for its failure to steer Israel, its close ally, to finish or reduce its bombing campaign and ground invasion in Gaza that, in line with health officials in the territory, has killed about 32 000 people, displaced most of the population and turned much of the strip into ruins.
According to Israeli officials, Israel went to war after a Hamas-led attack on October 7 that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and sent greater than 250 hostages to Gaza. Israeli leaders proceed to insist that their goals, including defeating Hamas, haven’t yet been fully realized, meaning they can not tolerate a everlasting ceasefire.
Security Council resolutions are considered international law. And while the Council doesn’t have the means to implement the resolution, it might probably impose punitive measures, akin to sanctions, on Israel if member states agree.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the resolution was consistent with diplomatic efforts by the United States, Qatar and Egypt to barter a ceasefire in exchange for the release of hostages held in Gaza. She said the United States abstained since it disagreed with all the things in the resolution, including the decision not to sentence the October 7 Hamas attacks.
“A ceasefire of any duration must come with the release of the hostages – that is the only way,” Ms Thomas-Greenfield said.
The United States asked for an amendment to the text that, in line with diplomats, removed the “durable ceasefire” and replaced it with a “permanent ceasefire” and desired to make the ceasefire conditional on the release of the hostages, which is in line with its policy and the negotiations it’s conducting with Qatar and Egypt .
Although the resolution adopted on Monday demands the unconditional and immediate release of all hostages, it doesn’t make the demand for a ceasefire conditional on their release. Ms. Thomas-Greenfield called the resolution “non-binding.”
The U.S.-backed resolution, which failed on Friday, also condemned the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and called on U.N. member states to limit funding for the Palestinian armed group.
While the failed U.S.-drafted resolution said the Security Council “determines the need for an immediate and lasting ceasefire,” the resolution adopted Monday was far more concise and direct. She demanded “an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan, respected by all parties, leading to a lasting and lasting ceasefire.”
There are two weeks left until the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The resolution also condemned “all attacks on the civilian population” and “all acts of terrorism”, with particular emphasis on the taking of hostages.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, accused the council of bias against Israel since it took no motion to assist secure hostages held in Gaza. He said all council members must have voted “against this shameful resolution.”
As images of ravenous children, carnage, and big destruction of civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip spread, pressure mounted on the Security Council to act and for the United States to not veto it.
“When such atrocities are committed in broad daylight against defenseless civilians, including women and children, the only thing that must be done morally, legally and politically is to put an end to it” – Riyad Mansour, United Nations Representative of Palestine – he told the council.
International aid agencies, which have been calling for a ceasefire in Gaza for months, welcomed the resolution and said in statements that it needs to be implemented immediately to supply respite to the civilian population and to enable aid staff to deliver food, medicine, water and other essential supplies to the required scale.
“A ceasefire is the only way to ensure the protection of civilians and is crucial to enabling humanitarian aid to scale up to safely reach those in desperate need. This resolution must represent a critical turning point,” the International Rescue Committee said in an announcement.
Hamas, which holds greater than 100 hostages captured during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that began the war, welcomed the Security Council resolution in an announcement posted on Telegram. He added that the Palestinian armed group was ready “to immediately engage in a prisoner exchange process that will lead to the release of prisoners on both sides.”
The resolution adopted on Monday also called on each side to “fulfill their obligations under international law towards all persons in their custody.”
She is Abuheweila reporting contributed.
