The United Nations Security Council voted Monday to adopt President Joe Biden’s resolution outlining a ceasefire plan between Israel and Hamas.
Russia abstained from the vote, while the other 14 council member countries voted in favor of the ceasefire plan.
The resolution affirms that Israel has accepted the ceasefire plan and calls on Hamas leaders to accept the three-phase plan “without delay and without conditions.”
The first phase of the resolution demands that Hamas release Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails and for Israeli forces to leave certain populated areas of Gaza.
The vote came as Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to the region on Monday to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem amid ceasefire negotiations.
The US representative to the UN, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, is seen raising her hand during Monday’s vote. The UN Security Council voted to adopt a resolution outlining a proposed ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
President Joe Biden is captured on Sunday during his trip to France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day. His ceasefire proposal received the go-ahead from the UN Security Council on Monday, with the only abstention from Russia.
Netanyahu has said Biden presented only parts of the proposal and insisted that any talk of a permanent ceasefire before dismantling Hamas’ military and governance capabilities is a failure.
Blinken’s trip comes at a particularly tumultuous political time for Netanyahu, as Benny Gantz, a centrist member of Israel’s war cabinet, resigned from the government on Sunday.
Upon leaving, Gantz accused Netanyahu of mismanaging the war and putting his “political survival” before the country’s security.
Gantz had previously said he would leave the government by June 8 if Netanyahu did not present a new plan on how to deal with post-war Gaza.
With Gantz gone, Netanyahu is now more reliant on far-right allies in the Israeli parliament, who have threatened to collapse his government if he implements a proposed ceasefire deal that would allow hostages to be released if Israeli forces withdrew. Loop.
With no firm public response yet from Hamas or Israel to the proposal they received 10 days ago, Blinken began his eighth visit to the region since the conflict began in October by meeting with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt, a key mediator with the militant group Hamas.
Blinken again called on Hamas to accept the plan, which he said has broad international support.
“If you want a ceasefire, put pressure on Hamas to say ‘yes,'” he told reporters before leaving Cairo on a trip to Israel, Jordan and Qatar.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) on Monday in Jerusalem as the leaders try to work out a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas.
In a photo distributed Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) is seen greeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right).
Blinken said Israel accepted the proposal, although Netanyahu has not said so directly.
“I know there are those who are pessimistic about the outlook,” Blinken said, placing responsibility squarely on Hamas. ‘That’s understandable. Hamas continues to show an extraordinary cynicism in its actions, a disinterest not only in the well-being and security of Israelis but also of Palestinians.’
Blinken said the plan on the table is the “best way” to reach a ceasefire, free remaining hostages and improve regional security.
While President Joe Biden, Blinken and other US officials have praised the hostage rescue, the operation led to the deaths of large numbers of Palestinian civilians and could complicate the ceasefire initiative by emboldening Israel and hardening Hamas’ resolve to continue fighting the war it began with its October 7 attack on Israel.
“It’s hard to say how Hamas will process this particular operation and what it will do with its determination as to whether it will say yes or no,” Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Sunday.
“We are hopeful that, with enough chorus and the entire international community speaking with one voice, Hamas will come to the right answer,” Sullivan told ABC’s This Week.
In his talks with El-Sissi, Blinken also discussed plans for post-conflict governance and reconstruction in Gaza, following the massive destruction there.
Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz announced his resignation from the government on Sunday.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken was captured as he arrived at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv on Monday to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders.
“It is imperative that there be a plan, and that has to involve security, it has to involve governance, it has to involve reconstruction,” Blinken said.
Netanyahu and his government have resisted calls for any “day after” plans that would prevent Israel from having any kind of security presence in the territory.
Blinken said he would urge Israel to propose alternatives that were acceptable.
“It would be very good if Israel presented its own ideas on this, and I will talk to the government about it,” he said. “But one way or another, we have to have these plans, we have to have them in place, we have to be ready to act if we want to take advantage of a ceasefire.”
The three-phase ceasefire plan calls for the release of more hostages and a temporary pause in hostilities that will last as long as necessary to negotiate the second phase, which aims to achieve the release of all hostages, a “complete withdrawal of Israeli forces.” Gaza” and “a permanent end to hostilities,” according to a US-drafted resolution presented to the UN Security Council.
The third phase requires the reconstruction of Gaza.
The Security Council will vote Monday afternoon on the resolution, which welcomes the proposal and urges Hamas to accept it.
But Hamas may not be the only obstacle.
Although the agreement has been described as an Israeli initiative and thousands of Israelis have demonstrated in support of it, Netanyahu has expressed skepticismsaying that what has been presented publicly is not accurate and that Israel is still committed to destroying Hamas.
He finds himself in a politically complicated situation, as his far-right allies in parliament are against the proposed ceasefire agreement.
In the wake of the hostage rescue over the weekend, Netanyahu pressured Gantz not to resign.
Blinken met with Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Gantz and Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid on almost all of his previous trips to Israel.
Officials said Blinken is expected to meet with Gantz on Tuesday.
Despite Blinken’s visits to the region about once a month since the war began, the conflict continues with more than 37,120 Palestinians dead, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its counts.
Hamas and other militants killed about 1,200 people in the Oct. 7 attack, mostly civilians, and took about 250 people hostage.
The war has severely hampered the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians in Gaza, who face widespread hunger. UN agencies say more than 1 million people in the territory could experience the highest level of hunger in mid-July.
In Jordan, Blinken will participate in an emergency international conference on improving the flow of aid to Gaza.