The UN Security Council has voted in favor of a multi-stage plan for a ceasefire in the Gaza war presented by US President Joe Biden. A corresponding resolution was adopted by the most powerful body of the United Nations in New York on Monday. 14 member states approved the draft, while the veto-wielding Russia abstained.
With the paper, the committee supported a specific plan for a ceasefire for the first time since the outbreak of war. “Today we voted for peace,” said US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield afterwards.
The paper expresses its support for a plan presented by Biden that envisages ending the fighting in the Gaza Strip in three phases. According to the US, only the Islamist Hamas has not yet agreed to the plan. However, there has not yet been a clear and public approval of the plan from the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Demand to Hamas
However, the resolution, which is binding under international law, states that Israel has accepted the plan and calls on the Islamist Hamas to do the same, urging all parties involved to implement the plan “without delay and without conditions”.
The ambitious draft deal presented by Biden at the end of May initially provides for a complete and unrestricted ceasefire lasting six weeks. During this period, a specific group of hostages would be released. In return, Palestinians imprisoned in Israel would be released. In the next phase, the fighting would then be permanently stopped and the remaining hostages released. In a final phase, according to the draft, the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip would begin.
Al-Jazeera reported in the evening that Hamas welcomed the Security Council resolution and reaffirmed its willingness to continue indirect negotiations for an agreement. However, the positive reaction did not constitute a formal acceptance of the proposed multi-stage plan.
EU calls for implementation
The European Union is calling for the immediate implementation of the plan, EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell announced in the evening. The international community fully supports the comprehensive roadmap presented by Biden, the foreign policy chief reiterated.
Four hostages freed from Gaza
It was the eleventh time since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip that the UN Security Council voted on a resolution on the conflict. Only four proposed resolutions were adopted.
In the resolution that has now been passed, the UN Security Council also stresses its commitment to the vision of a two-state solution in which Israel and the Palestinians can live peacefully side by side. To achieve this, it is important to reunite the West Bank and the Gaza Strip under the leadership of the Palestinian Authority. However, Israel’s government is currently vehemently opposed to this.
Blinking in Jerusalem
In the ongoing efforts to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza war, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday. Talks with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant were also planned afterwards. He will meet with Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog on Tuesday morning. Blinken will be in the Middle East until Wednesday, and after Egypt and Israel he will travel to Jordan and Qatar.
Terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups from the Gaza Strip made a surprise incursion into southern Israel on October 7. They killed more than 1,200 people and took over 250 hostages. The massacre sparked the Gaza War. Since then, according to the health authority, more than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed and around 84,500 injured. These figures, which do not distinguish between fighters and civilians, cannot be independently verified.
Israel’s army is under strong international criticism for its actions in the Gaza Strip and the high number of civilian casualties. According to aid organizations, the humanitarian situation for the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip is devastating.