The Security Council supports the plan for a cease-fire in Gaza

2024-06-11 07:42:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Security Council supports the plan for a cease-fire in Gaza

UN Security Council. Photo: Michael M. Santiago

A plan presented by US President Joe Biden for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip was accepted by the Security Council. The most powerful UN forum voted in New York (10.06.2024) on the relevant resolution. 14 member countries approved it, while Russia, as a power with thirty vetoes, abstained.

"Today we voted for peace," said US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield at the end of the voting session. The Security Council also sent "a clear message to Hamas: Accept this ceasefire agreement that is on the table." Israel, meanwhile, has accepted the deal, "and the fighting could end today if Hamas does the same," Thomas-Greenfield said.

The plan envisages an end to the fighting in the Gaza Strip in three phases, as well as the release of hostages kidnapped by Hamas terrorist militias in exchange for imprisoned Palestinians. According to the US, so far Hamasinuk has accepted this plan. A clear public approval so far has not been even from the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Call for implementation "without delay and without conditions"

The resolution is binding under international law. She explains that Israel has accepted the plan and asks the Islamist militant Hamas to do the same. In the text, all parties are urged to implement the plan "without delay and without conditions".

It is the eleventh time since the war in the Gaza Strip began that the UN Security Council votes for a resolution related to this conflict. Only four projects have been accepted.

The draft resolution was presented at the end of May

The ambitious project for an agreement proposed at the end of May by US President Biden initially foresees a complete and unlimited ceasefire initially for six weeks, During this period a certain group of hostages must be released. In exchange, Palestinians imprisoned in Israel will also be released.

In the subsequent phase, the fighting will end in the long term and the other hostages will be released. In the last phase, according to the draft resolution, work on the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip should begin.

In the resolution of the UN Security Council, it is emphasized that the vision for the two-state solution, where Israelis and Palestinians live in peace alongside each other, will be adhered to. For this reason, it is important that West Jordan and the Gaza Strip be reunited under the leadership of the Palestinian Authority. The government of Israel currently flatly rejects this./ DW