The United States will bring a U.N. draft resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an Israel-Hamas hostage deal to a Security Council vote on Friday morning, a U.S. spokesperson said.
The latest version of the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, says an “immediate and sustained ceasefire” lasting roughly six weeks would protect civilians and allow for the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
The resolution “unequivocally supports ongoing international diplomatic efforts to secure such a ceasefire in connection with the release of all remaining hostages,” it reads, referring to ongoing talks brokered by the United States, Egypt, and Qatar.
Nate Evans, spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said on Thursday that the 15-member council would vote on Friday morning on the text negotiated in “many rounds of consultations” with Security Council members.
To pass, a resolution needs at least nine votes and no vetoes by the U.S., France, Britain, Russia or China.
The U.S. has wanted any Security Council support for a ceasefire to be linked to the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,139 people and taking 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
During the five-month-long war, Washington has vetoed three draft resolutions, two of which would have demanded an immediate ceasefire. Most recently, the U.S. justified its veto by saying such council action could jeopardize efforts by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar to broker a pause in the war and release of hostages.
The U.S. traditionally shields Israel at the United Nations, but it has also abstained twice, allowing the council to adopt resolutions that aimed to boost aid to Gaza and called for extended pauses in fighting.
In a related development, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that “gaps are narrowing” in ongoing talks in Qatar aimed at reaching a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages.
During a joint press conference with his Egyptian counterpart in Cairo, Blinken said Thursday that a major military operation by Israel in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah is “unnecessary”, and that “there is a better way to deal with the ongoing threat posed by Hamas”. In the northern Gaza Strip, Israel’s army is four days into a raid at the Al-Shifa hospital, where the military says Hamas is operating from among patients and displaced civilians.
Blinken is meeting foreign ministers from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan while in Cairo on Thursday as he pushes for a pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The Emirati international cooperation minister and the general secretary of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s (PLO) executive committee will also attend. Egyptian security sources said Arab nations will stress the urgency of developing plans for a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict..
- More than a third of the US Senate’s Democrats called on President Joe Biden‘s administration to take “bold” action towards establishing a Palestinian state in the latest pushback against Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
- At least 31,988 Palestinians have been killed and 74,188 wounded since Israel started its offensive on Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave.
- Israel’s spy chief David Barnea will travel to Qatar on Friday to meet mediators trying to secure a Gaza ceasefire that would include a hostage release, according to a statement issued by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office on Thursday.
- Israel is using drones to blow up Palestinian civilians one by one
Israelis use drones to blow up Palestinian civilians one by one
— What the media hides. (@narrative_hole) March 21, 2024
They just don’t give a f**k pic.twitter.com/lk1PI6Y9GG
Reuters/ News Agencies
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