ISRAEL reacted angrily to the UN Security Council’s first vote demanding an “immediate ceasefire” in the Gaza war, after its closest ally the United States abstained, while fighting rages in the Palestinian territory.
After the vote, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres led calls for the resolution to be implemented.
“Failure cannot be forgiven,” he wrote on social media platform X.
Soon after the resolution was passed, Israel canceled a visit to Washington by a delegation requested by America to discuss concerns over Israel’s invasion of Rafah, in densely populated southern Gaza.
Israel said the United States’ abstention was “harming” both its war effort and efforts to free the hostages.
“This is a clear departure from the consistent US position,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.
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While diplomatic attention turned to New York, fighting continued in the Gaza Strip, with Israeli forces battling Hamas militants around at least two major hospitals.
Foreign military planes again dropped aid into northern Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is very acute and civilians have fled to the south.
“This is a famine,” said Mohamad al-Sabaawi, who like others rushed to shore hoping something would float. He walked away with a small can of yellow fish.
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Washington insists its abstention at the Security Council, followed by multiple vetoes, does not signal a change in policy, even though Washington has taken an increasingly tough stance towards Israel in recent weeks.
Clap
An abstention means the resolution is approved and the other 14 members of the Security Council voted yes.
They are demanding an “immediate ceasefire” during the ongoing holy month of Ramadan, leading to a “permanent” ceasefire.
Also read: Support for a ceasefire in Gaza overflows at the UN General Assembly
The resolution, which drew applause in the usually staid Council, also demanded that Hamas and other militants free the hostages they captured, although it did not directly link the releases to the ceasefire.
The Gaza war broke out with an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
The militants also held around 250 hostages, of which Israel believes around 130 are still being held in Gaza, including 33 people thought to be dead.
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Vowing to destroy Hamas and free its captives, Israel has carried out relentless bombing and land invasions of coastal areas.
The Ministry of Health in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Monday put the total number of Palestinian fatalities at 32,333, most of them women and children.
Hamas welcomed the Security Council resolution and reiterated its readiness to negotiate the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
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The Palestinian Authority, which has partial administrative control of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, also welcomed the vote. A top PA official, Hussein al-Sheikh, called for “a permanent end to this criminal war and an immediate Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip”.
Member states are obliged to comply with resolutions passed by the Security Council.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said its implementation was “essential to protect all civilians”, while Jordanian Foreign Ministry spokesman Sufyan Qudah said “Israel must comply with this decision”.
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The resolution came when Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visited Washington.
“We have no moral right to stop the war while there are still hostages being held in Gaza,” he said after the vote.
Tensions between the US and Israel are rising as the US worries about the impact of the war on civilians in Gaza, a place the UN says will soon be hit by famine.
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Netanyahu’s determination to launch a ground operation in Rafah, the town on Gaza’s southern border where most of the region’s population has taken refuge, has been a major point of contention.
Confused
The White House said it was “confused” and “disappointed” by the cancellation of Israel’s delegation to Washington, but the State Department said it would “seek other means to express our concerns” over Israel’s planned Rafah invasion.
In Rafah, Palestinians welcomed the UN decision and called on the United States to use its influence with Israel to guarantee a ceasefire.
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Bilal Awad, 63, said Washington should oppose the attack on Rafah, and support the return of refugees to their city.
Ihab al-Assar, 60, expressed hope that Israel would comply with the Security Council.
In Gaza City, where Assar fled, troops and tanks have surrounded Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest hospital in the region, for a week. They recently moved to Al-Amal Hospital in the main city of Khan Yunis in the south.
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Israel has called its operation a “proper operational activity” and said it had taken care to avoid harm to civilians, but aid agencies have raised concerns about what could go wrong.
The Israeli military said it was fighting militants around the two hospitals and reported about 20 militants killed around Al-Amal earlier in the day in close combat and airstrikes.
Palestinians living near Al-Shifa have reported bodies in the streets, constant bombings, and the arrest of men who were stripped naked and interrogated.
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Obscene
The Israeli military said it had detained around 500 militants affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another militant group, during the Al-Shifa operation.
The fighting came as the UN-appointed independent expert, Francesca Albanese, said there were reasonable grounds to believe that Israel’s actions in Gaza had met the threshold for acts of genocide.
Israel rejected Albanese’s report, which will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday, as an obscene reversal of reality.
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At Al-Amal Hospital, the Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli forces ordered staff and patients to evacuate, but the departing convoy was trapped by debris on the road.
The charity reported Israeli forces opened fire on staff trying to clear the debris, wounding two people, one of whom made it back to the convoy.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (AFP/Z-3)
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