The 10 elected members of the UN Security Council circulated among themselves a new draft resolution demanding “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” in Gaza as well as the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages “.
The 10 elected members of the Council, namely Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, Switzerland, Algeria, Guyana, South Korea, Sierra Leone and Slovenia circulated this draft after reaching to an agreement.
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, will be decisive in the Security Council’s decision whether or not to adopt this resolution. The other four permanent members – Russia, China, Britain and France – are likely to support it or abstain.
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In an interview given to Times of Israel Last week, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, criticized an earlier version of this project, since slightly modified in order to obtain American support.
The previous draft presented separately, in distinct paragraphs, the demands for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages. The two requests become one in the updated version. Last March, the United States abstained from voting on a similar resolution adopted by the Security Council, limiting itself to calling for an immediate ceasefire during Ramadan.
In June, the Council adopted a new resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire based on terms negotiated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt, with a release of hostages in three stages that would end the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
All negotiations based on these principles have since failed. The United States and Egypt continue to try to reach an agreement for the release of the hostages and Washington hopes that Qatar’s decision to ask Hamas officials to leave Doha will help advance negotiations.
So far, none of this has resulted in anything concrete, which is why members of the Security Council have resumed their work with a view to passing a ceasefire resolution. So far, such initiatives have had no effect on the ground, but Security Council members hope it will put pressure on the warring parties to end the conflict.
Danon explained to Times of Israëllast week, opposed this draft resolution which did not make the end of the war conditional on the release of the hostages. In March, the United States argued that merging the two demands into a single sentence was sufficient to establish, for them, a conditional relationship between the ceasefire and the release of the hostages.
The draft resolution also calls for immediate access for the civilian populations of Gaza to humanitarian aid and services essential to their survival.
Furthermore, he “underlines” that UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for helping Palestinian refugees, “remains the heart of the humanitarian response in Gaza”.
The Israeli Parliament last month passed two laws, which will come into force in 90 days, banning UNRWA operations in the Palestinian territories.
Finally, the draft resolution expresses the Council’s “deep concern about the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza, starting with the lack of appropriate health services and food insecurity, a risk factor for famine, particularly in the north.”
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