UNSC calls for a ‘lasting, sustainable ceasefire’ in Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza and the release of all captives.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) demands an immediate ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the release of all hostages as the United States abstains from the vote. The remaining 14 council members voted in favour of the resolution, which was proposed by the 10 elected members of the council. There was a round of applause in the council chamber after the vote on Monday.
The resolution calls for an immediate ceasefire for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which ends in two weeks, and also demands the release of all hostages seized in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7.
“The bloodbath has continued for far too long,” said Amar Bendjama, the ambassador from Algeria, the Arab bloc’s current Security Council member and a sponsor of the resolution. “Finally, the Security Council is shouldering its responsibility.”
The US had repeatedly blocked Security Council resolutions that put pressure on Israel but has increasingly shown frustration with its ally as civilian casualties mount and the UN warns of impending famine in Gaza.
Speaking after the vote, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield blamed Hamas for the delay in passing a ceasefire resolution.
“We did not agree with everything with the resolution,” which she said was the reason why the US abstained.
“Certain key edits were ignored, including our request to add a condemnation of Hamas,” Thomas-Greenfield said. She stressed that the release of Israeli captives would lead to an increase in humanitarian aid supplies going into the besieged coastal enclave.
Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour addresses the UN Security Council [Andrew Kelly/Reuters]
The White House said the final resolution did not have language the US considers essential and its abstention does not represent a shift in policy.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the US failure to veto the resolution is a “clear retreat” from its previous position and would hurt war efforts against Hamas as well as efforts to release Israeli captives held in Gaza.
His office also said Netanyahu will not be sending a high-level delegation to Washington, DC, in light of the new US position.
US President Joe Biden had requested to meet Israeli officials to discuss Israeli plans for a ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza, where more than 1 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering.
White House spokesperson John Kirby said the US was “disappointed” by Netanyahu’s decision.
“We’re very disappointed that they won’t be coming to Washington, DC, to allow us to have a fulsome conversation with them about viable alternatives to them going in on the ground in Rafah,” Kirby told reporters.
He said senior US officials would still meet for separate talks with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who is currently in Washington, on issues including the captives, humanitarian aid and protecting civilians in Rafah.
Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor James Bays said the vote is still a “very, very significant” development.
“After almost six months, … the vote, almost unanimous,” has demanded a lasting and immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
“The US has used its veto three times,” Bays said. “This time, the US let this pass.”
“Resolutions of the Security Council are international law. They are always seen as binding on all the member states of the United Nations,” he added.
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a post on X that the resolution “must be implemented”, adding that “failure would be unforgivable”.
The vote came amid international calls to bring the nearly six-month-long conflict to an end as Israeli forces pummel Gaza and humanitarian conditions in the besieged strip reach
critical levels.
More than 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced, and conditions under Israeli siege and bombardment have pushed Gaza to the brink of famine, the UN said.
More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli assault since October 7, mostly women and children, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Israel began its military offensive in Gaza after Hamas led an attack on southern Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,139 people, mostly civilians, and seizing about 250 others as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
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Palestinian leaders welcomed the adoption of the resolution, saying it was a step in the right direction.
“This must be a turning point,” Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the UNSC, holding back tears. “This must signal the end of this assault, of atrocities against our people.”
In a statement, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on UNSC member states to fulfill their legal responsibilities to implement the resolution immediately.
‘Vote in favour of peace’
The ministry also stressed the importance of intensifying efforts to achieve a permanent ceasefire that extends beyond Ramadan, secure the entry of aid, work on the release Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails and prevent forced displacement of Palestinians.
Hamas welcomed the resolution and said in a statement it “affirms readiness to engage in immediate prisoner swaps on both sides”.
France called for more work on securing a permanent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
“This crisis is not over. Our council will have to remain mobilised and immediately get back to work. After Ramadan, which ends in two weeks, it will have to establish a permanent ceasefire,” French Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere said.
The latest vote was held after Russia and China vetoed a US-sponsored resolution on Friday that would have supported “an immediate and sustained ceasefire”.
Russian Ambassador Vasily Alekseyevich Nebenzya said his country hopes Monday’s resolution will be used in the “interests of peace” rather than advancing the “inhumane Israeli operation against Palestinians”.
“It is of fundamental importance that the UN Security Council, for the first time, is demanding the parties observe an immediate ceasefire, even if it is limited to the month of Ramadan,” he said. “Unfortunately, what happens after that ends remains unclear.”
Russia tried to push for the use of the word “permanent” in regards to the ceasefire. It had complained that dropping the word could allow Israel “to resume its military operation in the Gaza Strip at any moment” after Ramadan, which ends on April 9.
“We are disappointed that it did not make it through,” Nebenzya said.
Many world leaders have welcomed a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution that demands an immediate ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.
While the United States abstained from the vote on Monday, the remaining 14 council members voted for the resolution.
The resolution, which the US said it did not agree with in its entirety, calls for an “immediate ceasefire” for the duration of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends in two weeks. It calls for the ceasefire to lead to a “lasting” truce, for the release of all hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, and for respect for international law from each party when it comes to detainments.
Here are some reactions from key officials around the world: The ministry of Foreign Affairs said that adopting the resolution is a step in the right direction to end the five-month war, to allow the entry of aid, and to begin the return of those displaced.
The ministry also called on UNSC member states to fulfill their legal responsibilities to implement the resolution immediately. The ministry stressed the importance of achieving a permanent ceasefire that extends beyond Ramadan – along with securing the entry of aid, working to release prisoners, and preventing forced displacement. Fatah Central Committee member Sabri Saidam said the resolution “is a step in the right direction leading towards the end of the ongoing massacre in Palestine”.
“The consensus we witnessed today should pave the way for the full recognition of the much-delayed rights of the Palestinians and independence of the State of Palestine,” Saidam told Al Jazeera. Hamas official Basem Naim of the Palestinian group Hamas said it was committed to the conditions of the resolution and said Israel must be held accountable in adhering to it.
“It is the role of the international community to oblige Israel and to end this double standard,” Basem Naim, a senior official in Hamas’s political bureau, told Al Jazeera.
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“The question is ‘How strong is the international community to oblige Israel to implement this resolution?'” he said.
The group also stressed the necessity of reaching a permanent ceasefire that leads to the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, and affirmed its readiness to engage in an immediate exchange process that leads to the release of prisoners on both sides. Israeli ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said the resolution failed to demand a ceasefire without “conditioning” it on the release of captives in Gaza, saying it “undermines the efforts to secure their release”.
“It is harmful to these efforts because it gives Hamas terrorists hope to get a ceasefire without releasing the hostages. All members of the council … should have voted against this shameless resolution,” he said.
Shortly after the resolution passed, Netanyahu cancelled the visit of an Israeli delegation to Washington, DC, which the US had requested to discuss concerns over a proposed Israeli invasion of Rafah, a city in crowded southern Gaza.
The US abstention was “a clear retreat from the consistent position of the US”, and would hurt Israel’s war efforts and bid to release the hostages still held by Hamas, the prime minister’s office said.
The White House said in a statement that Washington’s abstention from the vote “does not represent a shift in our policy … but because the final text does not have the language that we think is essential, like a condemnation of Hamas, we could not support it”.
White House spokesperson John Kirby said that US officials were “very disappointed about Netanyahu’s decision not to send his advisers for talks at the White House about the Rafah operation”.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Tl said the resolution “must be implemented”, adding that failure to do so would be “unforgivable”. China’s ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun “After repeated vetos of the council’s actions, the United States finally decided to stop obstructing the council’s demands for an immediate ceasefire. Despite all this, the US still tried to find all kinds of excuses and made accusations against China,” said China’s ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun.
“For the lives that have already perished, the council resolution today comes too late, but for the millions of people in Gaza who remain mired in an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, this resolution, if fully and effectively implemented, could still bring long-awaited hope,” he added. Russia’s ambassador to the UN Vasily Alekseyevich Nebenzya said Moscow hopes the resolution will be used in the “interests of peace” rather than advancing the “inhumane Israeli operation against Palestinians”.
He said Russia preferred a version of the text that demanded that a Ramadan ceasefire would lead to “a permanent sustainable ceasefire”. “We are disappointed that it did not make it through. Nevertheless, we believe it is fundamentally important to vote in favour of peace. The council must continue to work on achieving a permanent ceasefire,” he said. French ambassador to the UN Nicolas de Riviere said the adoption of the resolution shows that the UNSC can “still act when all of its members make the necessary effort to discharge their mandate”.
“The Security Council’s silence on Gaza was becoming deafening. It is high time now for the council to finally contribute to finding a solution,” he told the session.
He also said that work needs to be done to establish a permanent ceasefire and to revive the political process to bring about the two-state solution.
UK ambassador to the UN Barbara Woodward said London “regrets” that the resolution did not condemn the October 7 Hamas attack and stressed that the United Kingdom “condemns” the attacks “unequivocally”. Woodward also said that the resolution sends a “clear” message on the need for international humanitarian law to be upheld.
“We call for this resolution to be implemented immediately. President, we need to focus on how we chart the way from an immediate humanitarian pause to a lasting, sustainable peace without a return to fighting,” she said.
“That means the formation of a new Palestinian government for the West Bank and Gaza accompanied by an international support package,” she said.
Algeria representative to the UN Amar Bendjama said the Security Council was “finally shouldering its responsibility as the primary organ responsible for maintaining international peace and security”.
“I would like to thank all the council members for their flexibility and the constructive way that allowed us today to adopt this long-awaited resolution, [a] resolution that calls for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in order to put an end to the massacres that unfortunately are still ongoing over the five months,” he said.
“This bloodbath has continued for far too long.”
Slovenia’s envoy to the UN Samuel Zbogar said: “UNSC delivered the strongest signal thus far: We demand an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan leading to a lasting ceasefire. It is a call we have all been desperate to hear from the council,” said Samuel Zbogar, Slovenia’s envoy.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the passing of the resolution.
“Implementation of this resolution is vital for the protection of all civilians,” she said on X.
Human Rights Watch UN director Louis Charbonneau said Israel “needs to immediately respond” to the resolution “by facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid, ending its starvation of Gaza’s population, and halting unlawful attacks”. “Palestinian armed groups should immediately release all civilians held hostage. The US and other countries should use their leverage to end atrocities by suspending arms transfers to Israel,” he said.
South Africa Foreign minister Naledi Pandor welcomed the resolution on public radio but stressed that “the ball is in the court of the Security Council”.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez applauded the resolution, saying it was “in line with what Spain has been saying since the start of the conflict.
“The realisation of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace and security is the only realistic and viable solution for the region,” he wrote on X.
Outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte welcomed the resolution, adding: “What is now needed is to stop the violence, free the hostages, immediately send in vastly more humanitarian aid to Gaza and find a lasting solution.”
The country’s far-right leader, Geert Wilders, who swept to victory in recent polls, voiced support to “my Israeli friends in fighting Hamas”.
“The UN, USA and Europe don’t understand you are fighting an existential war. Against the dark forces of hate and destruction called Hamas,” he said on X.
Turkey called the resolution and prospective return of humanitarian access to Gaza “a positive step”.
“We hope that Israel will comply with the requirements of this resolution without delay,” Turkish foreign affairs spokesman Oncu Keceli wrote on X.
Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnes Callamard said the resolution is “long overdue”.
“This resolution must be accompanied by a shift in political pressure, including an immediate and comprehensive arms embargo,” Callamard added.
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim expressed the country’s endorsement of the resolution in the “strongest terms” and said it should be immediately enforced.
“We must immediately relieve the people of Gaza from the immense pain and suffering they have now endured for almost six months,” Anwar said in a statement.
“Particularly, the United States must prevail upon its ally to respect the will of the international community and accordingly observe the ceasefire and permit the immediate and massive entry of emergency aid.”
