The United Nations Security Council on Monday adopted a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, breaking a five-month deadlock in which the United States vetoed several calls to end the war while the humanitarian toll of Israel’s military offensive mounted .
The resolution was approved with 14 votes in favor. The United States abstained, allowing the resolution to pass. The room erupted in applause after the vote.
“Finally, finally, the Security Council is shouldering its responsibility,” said Algeria’s UN ambassador Amar Bendjama, the council’s only Arab member. “It is finally responding to the calls of the international community.”
Israel immediately criticized the United States for allowing the resolution to pass. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israel office called the move “a retreat from the consistent American position since the beginning of the war” and said the US abstention “harms the war effort as well as the effort to free the hostages.”
In response, Mr Netanyahu said he would not send an Israeli delegation to Washington for high-level talks with US officials about a planned operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah — a public rebuke to President Biden, who called for the meetings.
A State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, called the decision “a little surprising and unfortunate.”
The United States did not vote for the resolution because it did not condemn Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7 and because of other concerns about the wording, he said at a briefing in Washington. But other aspects of the resolution “were consistent with our long-term position — most importantly, that there should be a cease-fire and that there should be a release of hostages, which we also understood to be the position of the Israeli government.”
The revolutionary resolution, which was proposed by the 10 non-permanent members of the Council, was intensively negotiated until the last minute. The United States requested a change in the text that replaced a “permanent truce” in the war between Israel and Hamas with a “permanent cease-fire,” according to diplomats, and wanted language calling on both sides to create conditions that would allow for a cessation of hostilities. battles to maintain.
He is calling for a ceasefire for the remainder of the holy month of Ramadan, which is two weeks away.
While Security Council resolutions are considered international law and carry significant political and legal weight, the Council lacks the means to enforce them. The Council can take punitive measures, such as fines against violators, but even that could run into obstacles if a veto-wielding member opposes the measure. Israel is currently in violation of a 2016 resolution calling on it to halt settlement expansion in the West Bank.
Over the years, the United States has vetoed dozens of Security Council resolutions critical of Israel. He has rarely abstained, and when he does, analysts say, it sends a clear signal of Washington’s displeasure with Israeli action or policy.
In 2009, in the final days of George W. Bush’s presidency, the United States abstained from a 2009 cease-fire resolution regarding a previous war in Gaza. Under President Barack Obama, he abstained from the 2016 resolution on West Bank settlements. And he abstained again on a resolution three months ago on humanitarian aid to Gaza.
“The critical variable is that the Biden administration is clearly not happy with Israel’s military posture now, and allowing this resolution to pass was a relatively mild way to signal its concern,” said Richard Gowan, an expert on the U.N. Nations in International Crisis. Club. “But the abstention is a not-so-coded hint to Netanyahu to rein in business, especially in Rafah.”
As images of starving children, carnage and massive destruction of civilian infrastructure have emerged from Gaza, global anger has grown against Israel, along with pressure on the US to reconsider its steadfast support for Israel and use leverage to end the conflict.
“When such atrocities are committed in broad daylight against defenseless civilians, including women and children, the right thing to do, the only thing to do morally, legally and politically is to put an end to it,” said Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian . representative to the United Nations, Council.
The resolution passed on Monday calls for the unconditional and immediate release of all hostages, but does not make its calls for a ceasefire conditional on the release of hostages — one of Israel’s stated objections.
Since the start of the war in October, pressure has been mounting on the Security Council to call for a ceasefire. Its members, particularly the United States, have been heavily criticized for their failure to maintain peace and stability in the world.
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the resolution passed was in line with diplomatic efforts by the United States, Qatar and Egypt to broker a ceasefire in exchange for the release of hostages held in Gaza. He said the US abstained because it did not agree with everything in the resolution, including its failure to condemn the October 7 attacks by Hamas.
“A ceasefire of any length must come with the release of the hostages — that’s the only way,” Ms Thomas-Greenfield said.
The US had vetoed three previous resolutions calling for a ceasefire, agreeing with Israel’s position that it had the right to defend itself and that a permanent ceasefire would benefit Hamas. These vetoes angered many diplomats and UN officials as the war’s civilian death toll rose inexorably. The US position has also created rifts even with some of its staunchest European allies, including France.
Russia and China then vetoed two alternative resolutions proposed by the United States, the most recent last Friday, because they said those documents did not clearly call for a ceasefire.
It remained unclear whether Israel or Hamas would heed the resolution’s call for a cessation of hostilities.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, accused the Council of being biased against Israel for failing to take steps to help secure the hostages being held in Gaza. He said all members of the Council should have voted “against this disgraceful resolution”.
The resolution passed on Monday also calls for ensuring access to Gaza for humanitarian aid. It also requires both sides to “comply with their obligations under international law in relation to all persons they detain”.
Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7 killed about 1,200 people, according to authorities there. about 250 were taken hostage, about half of whom have since been released.
In Gaza, more than 32,000 people have been killed by Israeli shelling and ground assault, the majority of them women and children, the Gaza Health Ministry says. Israeli airstrikes have also destroyed vast areas of Gaza.
The US-backed resolution that failed on Friday also condemned the October 7 attack by Hamas and called on UN member states to cut funding to the Palestinian militant group. The new resolution is much more concise. It condemns “all attacks against civilians” and “all acts of terrorism”, specifically singling out hostage-taking.
Michael Crowley contributed to the report.
