The UN Security Council issues a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, and the release of the hostages

The UN Security Council called on Monday for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip during the month of Ramadan, which is its first demand to stop the fighting. The United States abstained from voting on the resolution, which also demanded the release of all hostages taken during the October 7 Hamas surprise attack in southern Israel, which sparked the war. This measure does not link the demand for the release of the hostages to the call for a ceasefire during the month of Ramadan, which ends on April 9.

Immediately after the vote, UN Secretary-General António Guterres he said on social media “The decision must be implemented. Failure would be unforgivable.”

Given the dates of Ramadan, the ceasefire called for in the resolution will only last for two weeks, although the draft states that the cessation of fighting must lead to a “permanent and sustainable ceasefire.”

Since the beginning of the war, the Security Council has adopted two resolutions on the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, but neither called for a ceasefire.

First, demand that the United Nations stop the fighting

The vote comes after Russia and China vetoed another US-sponsored resolution on Friday, which would have supported an “immediate and sustainable ceasefire” in the region. The Israeli-Hamas conflict.

The United States warned that the resolution approved on Monday could hinder negotiations to reach a permanent solution to the hostilities in which the United States, Egypt and Qatar have continued.

The resolution presented by the ten elected members of the Council received the support of Russia, China and the Arab Group, which includes 22 countries in the United Nations. The United States, like China and Russia, is a permanent member of the Council and is therefore able to kill any resolution with a single veto.

A statement issued by the Arab Group on Friday night called on all 15 Council members to “act with unity and urgency” and vote in favor of the resolution “to stop the bloodshed, preserve human lives, and avoid further human suffering and destruction.”

The Arab group said, “It has been a long time since the ceasefire.”

More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza. The agency does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its statistics, but it says that women and children constitute two-thirds of the dead.

Gaza is also facing a dire humanitarian emergency, with a report from an international authority on hunger issued on March 18. “Famine is imminent” in northern Gaza This escalation in the war may push half of the region's population of 2.3 million people to the brink of famine.

Israel says US “withdrawal” at UN “gives Hamas hope”

The vote became another showdown between world powers engaged in tense disputes elsewhere, with the United States receiving criticism for not taking tough enough measures against its ally Israel, even as it… Tensions escalated between the two countries.

This tension escalated again following the US abstention, allowing the resolution to be passed on Monday. Office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu He criticized the move in a social media post As a “clear retreat from the consistent position of the United States in the Security Council since the beginning of the war,” a reference to the veto power that the United States had previously used against resolutions that, like the one now approved, did not directly link the ceasefire to the war. The rest of the Israeli hostages are released.

“This withdrawal harms the war effort and hostage-release efforts because it gives Hamas hope that international pressure will allow it to accept a ceasefire without releasing our hostages,” Netanyahu's office said.

She added that Netanyahu warned the Biden administration that if the United States refused to block the new resolution, the Israeli leader would cancel a visit by a military delegation to Washington to discuss plans for a ground attack in the crowded city of Rafah in southern Gaza.

“In light of the change in the US position, Prime Minister Netanyahu has decided that the delegation will not go,” his office said in a social media post on Monday.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters: “We are very disappointed that they will not come to Washington, D.C., to allow us to have a lengthy conversation with them about viable alternatives to intervention on the ground in Rafah.” Monday.

The United States had vetoed three previous resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, the last of which was an Arab-backed resolution on February 20. This resolution was supported by 13 members of the Council, with one abstention from voting, reflecting overwhelming support for the ceasefire.

Russia and China criticize the previous US draft resolution as a “rhetorical exercise”

Russia and China used their veto power against a US-sponsored resolution in late October calling for a halt to the fighting to deliver aid, protect civilians, and stop arming Hamas. They said that this does not reflect global calls for a ceasefire.

They again vetoed the US resolution on Friday, calling it vague and saying it was not the direct demand for an end to the fighting that most of the world seeks.

The main issue was the unusual language in the US draft. He added that the Security Council “decides the necessity of an immediate and sustainable ceasefire.” The wording was not a direct “demand” or “call” for a cessation of hostilities.

Before Friday's vote, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, said that Moscow supports an immediate ceasefire, but criticized the watered-down language, which he described as philosophical formulation that does not belong to a UN resolution.

He accused US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield of “deliberately misleading the international community” about calling for a ceasefire.

“This was an empty rhetorical exercise,” Nebenzia said. “The American product is highly politicized, and its sole purpose is to help entertain voters, throw them a bone in the form of some kind of signal for a ceasefire in Gaza… and ensure impunity for Israel, whose crimes are not even assessed in the draft.”

China's UN Ambassador Zhang Jun said the US proposal set preconditions and did not live up to the expectations of Council members and the broader international community.

He said: “If the United States were serious about the ceasefire, it would not have repeatedly used its veto against several Council decisions.”