UNITED NATIONS — The UN Security Council is expected to vote on Tuesday on an Arab-backed resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The United States has announced that it will veto it.
Algeria, the Arab representative on the council, has put the draft resolution into a final form ready for a vote. Council diplomats said the vote would take place on Tuesday morning, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
In addition to a ceasefire, the final Algerian draft, obtained by The Associated Press, reiterates the council’s demands that Israel and Hamas “scrupulously comply” with international law, especially the protection of civilians, and rejects the forced relocation of Palestinians citizens.
The draft also demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages that Hamas took during their surprise October 7 attacks in southern Israel. About 1,200 people were killed and about 250 captured, with more than 100 believed to be still being held in Gaza.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in a statement that the United States has been working for months on a hostage agreement that would bring at least a six-week period of calm “from which we could then take the time and steps to build a more lasting peace.” ”
She said U.S. President Joe Biden has had multiple calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar over the past week to move the deal forward.
“While gaps remain, the most important elements are on the table” and it remains the best chance to reunite hostages with their families and allow for a longer pause in the fighting, allowing life-saving aid to reach Palestinian civilians who need it. desperately need it, Thomas-Greenfield said. Qatar said on Saturday that the talks were “not progressing as expected.”
In contrast, the Arab-backed resolution would not achieve these results, “and could even go against them,” she said. “For this reason, the United States does not support any action based on this draft resolution. Should it be put to the vote in the form as drafted, it will not be adopted.”
The 22 Arab countries at the United Nations have been demanding a ceasefire for months as Israel’s military offensive in response to Hamas attacks has intensified, with the number of Palestinians killed surpassing 28,000, the Health Ministry said. Gaza.
The chairman of the Arab Group, Tunisia’s UN Ambassador Tarek Ladeb, told UN reporters on Wednesday that some 1.5 million Palestinians who sought safety in the southern Gaza city of Rafah would face a “catastrophic scenario” if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues with a possible evacuation. of civilians and military offensive in the area bordering Egypt.
Netanyahu ordered the army to come up with a plan for evacuating Rafah, but Israel has not announced a timeline.
Algeria’s draft resolution also expresses “grave concern about the serious and urgently deteriorating humanitarian situation” in Gaza and reiterates the council’s call for unhindered humanitarian access throughout the territory, where UN officials say a quarter of the 2.3 million residents are facing famine.
The Security Council adopted two resolutions on Gaza, with the US, Israel’s closest ally, abstaining from both.
The first resolution on November 15 called for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses” in Gaza to address the escalating crisis for Palestinian civilians amid Israel’s air and ground attacks.
On December 22, the council adopted a watered-down resolution calling for an immediate acceleration of aid deliveries to hungry and desperate civilians in Gaza, but without the original plea for an “urgent suspension of hostilities” between Israel and Hamas.
It did call for “creating the conditions for a lasting cessation of hostilities.” The steps were not defined, but diplomats said this was the council’s first reference to stopping the fighting.
