Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour addresses the Security Council on the day of a vote on a Gaza resolution that demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan leading to a permanent sustainable ceasefire, and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, at U.N. headquarters in New York City, U.S., March 25, 2024 AP PHOTO .
UNITED NATIONS, March 25 (Reuters) – The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on Monday demanding an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas and the release of all hostages after the United States abstained from the vote.
The remaining 14 council members voted for the resolution, which was proposed by the 10 elected members of the body. There was a round of applause in the council chamber after the vote.
“The Palestinian people has suffered greatly. This bloodbath has continued for far too long. It is our obligation to put an end to this bloodbath before it is too late,” Algeria’s U.N. Ambassador Amar Bendjama told the council after the vote.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the failure of the U.S. to veto the resolution was a “clear retreat” from its previous position and would hurt Israel’s war efforts and bid to release more than 130 hostages still held by Hamas.
“Our vote does not, and I repeat that does not represent a shift in our policy,” White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. “Nothing has changed about our policy. Nothing.”
Following the U.N. vote, Netanyahu canceled a visit to Washington by a high-level delegation that was due to discuss a planned Israeli military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where some 1.5 million people have sought shelter.
Washington had been averse to the word ceasefire earlier in the nearly six-month-old war in the Gaza Strip and had used its veto power shield ally Israel as it retaliated against Hamas for an Oct. 7 attack that Israel says killed 1,200 people.
But as famine looms in Gaza and amid growing global pressure for a truce in the war that Palestinian health authorities say has killed some 32,000 people, the U.S. abstained on Monday to allow the Security Council to demand an immediate ceasefire for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which ends in two weeks.
Hamas welcomed the Security Council resolution, saying in a statement that it ‘affirms readiness to engage in immediate prisoner swaps on both sides’.
FAMINE IMMINENT
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the U.S. fully supported “some of the critical objectives in this nonbinding resolution,” but added that Washington did not agree with everything in the text, which also did not condemn Hamas.
“We believe it was important for the council to speak out and make clear that any ceasefire must come with the release of all hostages,” she told the council after the vote. “A ceasefire can begin immediately with the release of the first hostage and so we must put pressure on Hamas to do just that.”
The resolution demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. Israel says Hamas took 253 hostages during its Oct. 7 attack.
“It was the Hamas massacre that started this war,” Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan said. “The resolution just voted upon makes it seem as if the war started by itself … Israel did not start this war, nor did Israel want this war.”
The resolution also “emphasizes the urgent need to expand the flow of humanitarian assistance to and reinforce the protection of civilians in the entire Gaza Strip and reiterates its demand for the lifting of all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Israel on Monday to lift all obstacles to aid into Gaza and allow convoys of the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA into the north of the coastal enclave.
Famine is imminent and likely to occur by May in northern Gaza and could spread across the enclave by July, according to a U.N.-backed report by a global authority on food security released last week.
The U.S. has vetoed three draft council resolutions on the war in Gaza. It has also previously abstained twice, allowing the council to adopt resolutions that aimed to boost aid to Gaza and called for extended pauses in fighting.
Russia and China have also vetoed two U.S. drafted resolutions on the conflict – in October and on Friday.
“This must be a turning point,” an emotional Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour told the Security Council after the vote on Monday. “This must lead to saving lives on the ground.”
Israel continues to pound Rafah
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel could not stop its war on Hamas while there were still hostages in Gaza.
“We will operate against Hamas everywhere – including in places where we have not yet been,” his ministry quoted him as saying ahead of talks in the U.S. “We have no moral right to stop the war while there are still hostages held in Gaza.”
AIRSTRIKES AND SIEGES CONTUNUE
The Security Council resolution was approved as Israel continued to besiege two Gaza hospitals where it says Hamas cells are hiding and following a new wave of Israeli airstrikes.
Rafah, the last refuge for about half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population following the arrival of many people displaced by fighting elsewhere, came under heavy fire in the latest Israeli attacks, witnesses said.
Palestinian medics said 30 people had been killed in the previous 24 hours in Rafah, where Israel is planning a ground assault to eliminate what it says are militant cells there.
“The past 24 hours were one of the worst days since we moved in to Rafah,” said Abu Khaled, a father of seven, who declined to give his full name for fear of reprisals.
Gaza medics said an Israeli airstrike had killed 18 Palestinians in one house in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, and the victims were buried on Monday.
Israeli forces were also besieging Al-Amal and Nasser hospitals in the southern city of Khan Younis on Monday, Palestinian witnesses said, a week after entering Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City, the main hospital in the Strip.
Israel says hospitals in Gaza are used by the Palestinian militant group Hamas as bases. Hamas and medical staff deny this.
The Israeli military said it had detained 500 people affiliated with Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad and located weapons in the Al Shifa area. Israeli forces also said 20 militants had been “eliminated” in fighting and airstrikes around Al Amal Hospital over the previous 24 hours.
Reuters has been unable to access Gaza’s contested hospital areas and verify accounts by either side.
Hamas welcomed the Security Council resolution, saying in a statement that it ‘affirms readiness to engage in immediate prisoner swaps on both sides’.
FAMINE IMMINENT
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the U.S. fully supported “some of the critical objectives in this nonbinding resolution,” but added that Washington did not agree with everything in the text, which also did not condemn Hamas.
“We believe it was important for the council to speak out and make clear that any ceasefire must come with the release of all hostages,” she told the council after the vote. “A ceasefire can begin immediately with the release of the first hostage and so we must put pressure on Hamas to do just that.”
The resolution demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. Israel says Hamas took 253 hostages during its Oct. 7 attack.
“It was the Hamas massacre that started this war,” Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan said. “The resolution just voted upon makes it seem as if the war started by itself … Israel did not start this war, nor did Israel want this war.”
The resolution also “emphasizes the urgent need to expand the flow of humanitarian assistance to and reinforce the protection of civilians in the entire Gaza Strip and reiterates its demand for the lifting of all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Israel on Monday to lift all obstacles to aid into Gaza and allow convoys of the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA into the north of the coastal enclave.
Famine is imminent and likely to occur by May in northern Gaza and could spread across the enclave by July, according to a U.N.-backed report by a global authority on food security released last week.
The U.S. has vetoed three draft council resolutions on the war in Gaza. It has also previously abstained twice, allowing the council to adopt resolutions that aimed to boost aid to Gaza and called for extended pauses in fighting.
Russia and China have also vetoed two U.S. drafted resolutions on the conflict – in October and on Friday.
“This must be a turning point,” an emotional Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour told the Security Council after the vote on Monday. “This must lead to saving lives on the ground.”
Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right extremist politician blasted the UN vote by saying “The Security Council decision proves that the United Nations is anti-Semitic, and its Secretary General is anti-Semitic and encourages Hamas.”
REUTERS
Reuters
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