The UN Security Council has passed a resolution urging Hamas to accept a three-phase hostage-for-ceasefire proposal put forth by US President Joe Biden.
This marks the first time the council has endorsed a comprehensive peace plan to end the Gaza conflict.
Hamas issued a statement welcoming the resolution, though it remains uncertain if Gaza’s leadership will accept the ceasefire plan.
The stance of the Israeli government is also unclear. While Israel has officially accepted the peace plan, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has distanced himself from it. His coalition has moved further to the right since the proposal was introduced.
The resolution, drafted by the US, saw fourteen council members vote in favor, with Russia abstaining.
It outlines an initial exchange of elderly, sick, or female hostages for Palestinian detainees held by Israel during a six-week ceasefire.
The ceasefire would then progress into a permanent cessation of hostilities and the release of all hostages in a second phase, with negotiations mediated by the US, Qatar, and Egypt.
The third phase would involve launching a significant reconstruction effort.
The resolution calls on Hamas to accept the agreement and urges both parties “to fully implement its terms without delay and without condition.”
The US has been pushing for UN endorsement of the proposal since Biden unveiled it on May 31.
It gained the support of the Palestinian mission, with a clause stating that the initial six-week ceasefire would be extended as long as negotiations continued over the second phase.
The resolution stated that the US, Qatar, and Egypt would “work to ensure negotiations keep going until all the agreements are reached and phase two is able to begin.”
Palestinian presidential spokesperson, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said the Palestinian Authority leadership would support any resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza while preserving Palestinian territorial integrity.
Palestinian backing for the US resolution made it diplomatically difficult for Russia or China to veto it.
Since the start of the Gaza war in October, the Security Council has struggled to find consensus amid deep polarization.
It has agreed on humanitarian resolutions involving temporary ceasefires, but this is the first comprehensive peace resolution it has embraced.
“Over the past eight months this council has often faced divisions and the world has taken notice with understandable frustration,” said US envoy to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, following the vote.
“But there’s another side to this story because today we adopted a fourth resolution on this conflict.”
She declared, “Colleagues, today we voted for peace.”
The resolution asserted that Israel had accepted the ceasefire terms, though this is increasingly in doubt as Netanyahu has made skeptical remarks about the plan.
He claims the US only revealed parts of the plan and insists that any lasting ceasefire proposal without the complete destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capacity is a “non-starter.”
The resignation of centrist minister Benny Gantz over the weekend has left Netanyahu more reliant on far-right coalition members, who staunchly oppose the deal.
Hamas expressed initial positivity when Biden announced the deal and welcomed the Security Council vote, but has yet to formally respond to the ceasefire proposal.
The unusual display of relative unity by the Security Council places pressure on both parties to reach an agreement, although both have shown themselves to be more influenced by local constituencies and leaders’ personal interests than by international public opinion.
Prospects for a hostage and ceasefire deal were further complicated by an Israeli raid in Gaza on Saturday, which aimed to rescue four hostages but resulted in the deaths of 274 Palestinians.
A late amendment to the US draft resolution, designed to make it more acceptable to Israel, stated that the Security Council rejects any attempt to change the demographic or geographical boundaries of Gaza.
However, it omits earlier language specifically rejecting the creation of a buffer zone around the coastal strip.
