Armed militants from the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, in eastern Gaza. Photo / Ahmad Salem, Bloomberg via The Washington Post
A United States-drafted United Nations resolution endorsing President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, has been approved in a Security Council vote today.
There were 13 votes in favour of the text, with only Russia and China abstaining. There were no vetoes.
Earlier, the plan encountered stiff opposition from both Israel, which says it goes too far in envisioning a Palestinian state, and Palestinian organisations that say it does not go far enough.
The views of many of the 15 council members remain unclear.
At least nine of the 15 council members needed to approve the measure with no vetoes from the permanent members - Britain, France, Russia, and China, in addition to the US.
US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz said after the vote that “today’s resolution represents another significant step that will enable Gaza to prosper and an environment that will allow Israel to live in security”.
Several countries had expressed concerns during a week of tense negotiations.
European allies and Algeria, which represents the Arab world on the council, asked for more clarity on several elements of the resolution.
Russia proposed its own measure, asking for a report from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on how to implement provisions of Trump’s plan.
A spokesperson for the Russian mission to the UN said Moscow’s resolution would not be tabled for a vote today.
Trump announced his 20-point plan in late September after extensive negotiations with Israel and Hamas, both of which said they agreed to it.
While initial elements of the plan - a ceasefire, the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas and expansion of humanitarian aid to Gaza - have at least partially been carried out, the rest has been stalled.
The US measure makes the complete plan an international mandate, establishing a vaguely defined Board of Peace, headed by Trump with membership chosen by him, that for two years would control virtually every aspect from security and governance to reconstruction of Gaza.
The resolution, a copy of which was obtained by the Washington Post, calls the board “a transitional administration with an international legal personality”.
It would supervise and support a Palestinian “technocratic” committee responsible for “day to day operations of Gaza’s civil service and administration”.
The board would establish “a temporary International Stabilisation Force (ISF) in Gaza to deploy under unified command acceptable to the BoP”.
According to the resolution, the ISF - working with a newly trained and vetted Palestinian police force - would help secure border areas, ensure the disarming of militant groups and “protect humanitarian operations” in “close co-ordination” with Egypt and Israel.
“As the ISF establishes control and stability,” the resolution says, the Israel Defence Forces, which now controls slightly more than half of Gaza, will gradually withdraw, “save for a security perimeter presence”.
Quoting from Trump’s plan, which appears in full in an annex to the UN resolution, it says that once the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority has been reformed, it will take over governing authority in Gaza and “the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood”.
The US, the plan says, “will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous co-existence”.
The Administration played hardball in recent days leading to today’s vote. In anticipation of Russia’s alternative resolution, the US mission to the UN warned in a statement that “attempts to sow discord” would have “grave, tangible and entirely avoidable consequences for Palestinians in Gaza”.
Waltz wrote in an opinion article in the Washington Post: “The Board of Peace is the only path to a secure Gaza in which Palestinians can determine their own destiny … Any refusal to back this resolution is a vote either for the continued reign of Hamas terrorists or for the return to war with Israel.
“Every departure from this path, be it by those who wish to play political games or to relitigate the past, will come with a real human cost,” Waltz wrote.
As the vote approached, members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet objected to even the hazy and indefinite commitment to a Palestinian state in the US resolution.
“Israel’s policy is clear: There will be no Palestinian state,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said, calling on Netanyahu to make clear that it would not happen “in any form”.
“The only real solution for Gaza,” Katz said, “is encouraging voluntary emigration”.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called on Netanyahu to “order the elimination of the Palestinian Authority, which are terrorists in every sense”, and order the arrest of its President, Mahmoud Abbas, if there was any movement towards a state.
At the opening of a Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu restated his opposition to statehood, saying, “I don’t need anyone’s tweets, commentary or lectures”.
On its official website, Hamas said it spoke for “Palestinian factions and forces” in affirming “the rejection of any guardianship, foreign military presence or establishment of international bases inside the Gaza strip, as this represents a direct infringement on national sovereignty”.
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