After more than 50 years of bloodshed in the ongoing Israel-Palestine war, the UN security council on Monday, voted to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza for the first time since the start of the war.
Other members of the security council except the US voted in favour of the resolution, which was put forward by the 10 elected members, who managed to break the deadlock, during which the US on one side and Russia and China on the other, had cast opposing vetoes.
The US abstained in a vote for a resolution that “demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan”. It also demanded the release of hostages by Hamas, but did not make the ceasefire dependent on hostage release, a linkage the US had previously insisted on.
After the vote, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, cancelled a visit to Washington DC by an Israeli delegation set for early this week, according to Israel’s Channel 12 television. The delegation was due to discuss a planned Israeli offensive on the city of Rafah in Gaza, something the Biden administration opposed.
The US abstention marks a rift with the Netanyahu government, reflecting mounting frustration in Washington at the prime minister’s defiant insistence Israeli forces will go ahead with the Rafah attack, and at continued Israeli hindrance of humanitarian aid deliveries.
While the resolution demands a temporary ceasefire during the remainder of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, it adds that should lead to a “lasting sustainable ceasefire”. In a late amendment demanded by the US, the word “lasting” was substituted for “permanent”, to Russian objections. A Russian effort to restore the word “permanent” was defeated by 11 votes to three.
At the last minute on Monday morning, the US asked for an amendment adding a condemnation of Hamas for its attack on Israel on 7 October, leading to urgent huddles of diplomats on the chamber floor, but dropped that demand when it became clear the amendment would be resisted.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US envoy to the UN, said: “Certain key edits were ignored, including our requests to add a condemnation of Hamas, and we did not agree with everything in the resolution. For that reason we were unfortunately not able to vote yes. However, as I’ve said before, we fully support some of the critical objectives in this non-binding resolution.”
Although it is non-binding, the security council resolution does directly demand a ceasefire, rather than determining it to be an “imperative”, the wording of a defeated US text last week, making it an unequivocal expression of the will of the international community.
Thomas-Greenfield insisted that the wording of the resolution “means a ceasefire of any duration must come with the release of hostages”. The wording of the resolution, intensely debated over the weekend, asks for both a ceasefire and a hostage release in parallel, but does not make one conditional on the other. The security council resolution calls, as previous versions have done, for the expansion of the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza and for civilians to be protected.
