The United Nations Security Council has passed a resolution that demands a ceasefire in Gaza for the rest of Ramadan.
The Muslim holy month began on 10 March and is set to finish on 9 April – meaning the council is calling for a two-week ceasefire, though the draft said the pause in fighting should lead “to a permanent sustainable ceasefire”.
The US abstained from the vote, with the 14 other council members – including Russia, China and the UK – voting in favour.
The resolution also demanded the immediate, unconditional release of all hostages – not linked to a timeline – and “emphasises the urgent need to expand the flow of humanitarian assistance to… the Gaza Strip”.
After the vote, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled a planned visit to Washington by a delegation as “the US withdrew from its consistent position in the security council”.
In a statement, Mr Netanyahu’s office said: “The US did not veto today the new text that calls for a ceasefire without the condition of releasing the abductees.
“This is a clear retreat from the consistent position of the US in the Security Council since the beginning of the war.
“This withdrawal hurts both the war effort and the effort to release the hostages, because it gives Hamas hope that international pressure will allow them to accept a ceasefire without the release of our hostages.”
On Friday, Russia and China vetoed a US-sponsored resolution that would have supported “an immediate and sustained ceasefire” in the Israeli-Hamas conflict.
The council had adopted two resolutions on the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza since the start of the war but Friday’s proposal marked the first time the US has backed a resolution containing the word “ceasefire” – reflecting a toughening of the Biden administration’s stance towards Israel.
But the White House said after the vote that the US’s abstention “does not represent a shift in policy” and that the resolution “did not have language the US deems essential”.
US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that in adopting the resolution, the US “fully supports” the resolution’s “critical objectives”.
“In fact, they were the foundation of the resolution we put forward last week – a resolution that Russia and China vetoed.”
Emphasising that her country’s support for the objectives “is not simply rhetorical,” Ms Thomas-Greenfield said that the US “is working around the clock to make them real on the ground, through diplomacy”.
She also said a ceasefire could have come “months ago” had Hamas been ready to release the hostages, accusing the group of throwing roadblocks in the path of peace.
“So today my ask to the members of this Council… is ‘speak out and demand unequivocally that Hamas accepts the deal on the table’,” she said.
The US had vetoed three previous resolutions demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, the most recent a measure backed by the 22-nation Arab Group at the UN on 20 February.
After today’s vote, the UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said on social media that the resolution “must be implemented”, adding: “Failure would be unforgivable.”
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, and a UN-backed report published last week said “famine is imminent” in northern Gaza and that escalation of the war could push half of the territory’s 2.3 million people to the brink of starvation.
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