U.N. demands cease-fire in Gaza, its first demand to halt fighting

Israel-Hamas

EDITH M. LEDERER March 25, 2024

The United Nations Security Council on Monday demanded a cease-fire in Gaza during the

Muslim Islamic

holy month of Ramadan, its first call to halt fighting.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately canceled a planned visit to Washington by a high-level delegation to protest the decision.

The resolution passed 14

to

0 after the U.S. decided not to use its veto power and instead abstained on the resolution, which also demanded the release of all hostages taken captive during Hamas Oct. 7 surprise attack in southern Israel. But the measure does not link that demand to the cease-fire during Ramadan, which

ends is expected to end

April 9.

Netanyahu accused the U.S. of retreating from what he said had been a principled position by allowing the vote to pass without conditioning the cease-fire on the release of hostages held by Hamas.

The Israeli delegation was to present White House officials with plans for an expected ground invasion of the strategic Gaza town of Rafah, where

over more than

1 million Palestinian civilians have sought shelter from the war.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. had been consistent in its support for a cease-fire as part of a hostage deal.

The reason we abstained is because this resolution text did not condemn Hamas, Kirby said.

The vote comes after Russia and China vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution Friday that would have supported an immediate and sustained cease-fire in the Israeli-Hamas conflict.

The United States warned that the resolution approved on Monday could hurt negotiations to halt hostilities by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar, raising the possibility of another veto, this time by the Americans.

The resolution, put forward by the 10 elected council members, was backed by Russia and China and the 22-nation Arab Group at the United Nations.

A statement issued Friday night by the Arab Group appealed to all 15 council members to act with unity and urgency and vote for the resolution to halt the bloodshed, preserve human lives and avert further human suffering and destruction.

It is long past time for a cease-fire, the Arab Group said.

Because Ramadan ends next month, the cease-fire demand would last for just two weeks, though the draft says the pause in fighting should lead to a permanent sustainable cease-fire.

Since the start of the war, the Security Council has adopted two resolutions on the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza, but none has called for a cease-fire.

More than 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed during the fighting, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The agency does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.

Gaza also faces a dire humanitarian emergency, with a report from an international authority on hunger warning March 18 that famine is imminent in northern Gaza and that escalation of the war could push half of the territorys 2.3 million people to the brink of starvation.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council Friday that the resolutions text fails to support sensitive diplomacy in the region. Worse, it could actually give Hamas an excuse to walk away from the deal on the table.

We should not move forward with any resolution that jeopardizes the ongoing negotiations, she said, warning that if the diplomacy isnt supported, we may once again find this council deadlocked.

I truly hope that that does not come about, Thomas-Greenfield said.

The United States has vetoed three resolutions demanding a cease-fire in Gaza, the most recent an Arab-backed measure on Feb. 20. That resolution was supported by 13 council members with one abstention, reflecting the overwhelming support for a cease-fire.

Russia and China vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution in late October calling for pauses in the fighting to deliver aid, the protection of civilians and a halt to arming Hamas. They said it did not reflect global calls for a cease-fire.

They again vetoed the U.S. resolution Friday, calling it ambiguous and saying it was not the direct demand to end the fighting that much of the world seeks.

The vote became another showdown involving world powers that are locked in tense disputes elsewhere, with the United States taking criticism for not being tough enough against its ally Israel, even as tensions between the two countries rise.

A key issue was the unusual language in the U.S. draft. It said the Security Council determines the imperative of an immediate and sustained cease-fire. The phrasing was not a straightforward demand or call to halt hostilities.

Before the vote, Russias U.N.

a

mbassador

,

Vassily Nebenzia

,

said Moscow supports an immediate cease-fire, but he criticized the diluted language, which he called philosophical wording that does not belong in a U.N. resolution.

He accused U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and

U.S. Ambassador Linda

Thomas-Greenfield of deliberately misleading the international community about calling for a cease-fire.

This was some kind of an empty rhetorical exercise, Nebenzia said. The American product is exceedingly politicized, the sole purpose of which is to help to play to the voters, to throw them a bone in the form of some kind of a mention of a cease-fire in Gaza and to ensure the impunity of Israel, whose crimes in the draft are not even assessed.

Chinas U.N. ambassador, Zhang Jun, said the U.S. proposal set preconditions and fell far short of expectations of council members and the broader international community.

If the U.S. was serious about a cease-fire, it wouldnt have vetoed time and again multiple council resolutions, he said. It wouldnt have taken such a detour and played a game of words while being ambiguous and evasive on critical issues.

Fridays vote in the 15-member council was 11 members in favor and three against, including Algeria, the Arab representative on the council. There was one abstention, from Guyana.

After the vote, Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia and China of vetoing the resolution for deeply cynical reasons, saying they could not bring themselves to condemn Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7,

which something

the resolution would have done for the first time.

A second petty reason, she said, is that Russia and China simply did not want to vote for a resolution that was penned by the United States, because it would rather see us fail than to see this council succeed. She accused Russia of again putting politics over progress and having the audacity and hypocrisy to throw stones after launching an unwarranted invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The resolution did reflect a shift by the United States, which has found itself at odds with much of the world as even allies of Israel push for an unconditional end to fighting.

In previous resolutions, the U.S. has closely intertwined calls for a cease-fire with demands for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza.

Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7 killed roughly 1,200 people and led to the kidnapping of more than 200.This Monday’s

resolution, using wording thats open to interpretation, continued to link the two issues, but not as firmly.

Edith M. Lederer writes for the Associated Press.