United Nations Security Council plans to hold a vote Friday on a resolution that calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to the Israel-Hamas war, as tensions increased between that global body and Israel.
As of Thursday night, the text failed to condemn the Hamas terrorist group for its October 7 massacre of over 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The resolution also did not call for the release of the 138 remaining hostages out of the some 250 it seized that day.
Neither the UN General Assembly, which has already called for a ceasefire, or the UNSC have condemned that attack.
The UNSC was prompted to hold a vote by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who invoked a rare mechanism, Article 99, last used in 1989, which is designed to give the secretary-general some political power.
Guterres held a series of high-level diplomatic calls to help secure support for the text, submitted by the United Arab Emirates, which is one of 15 UNSC members.
The text expresses “grave concern over the catastrophic situation in the Gaza Strip and the suffering of the Palestinian civilian population,” as it demands an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire.”
It “demands that all parties comply with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law, notably with regard to the protection of civilians.”
UN pushing for a ceasefire
It follows a Security Council vote 12-3 last month, which called for a humanitarian pause to the war and demanded a return of the hostages.
Foreign Minister Eli Cohen issued a scathing attack against Guterres, stating that his “tenure is a danger to world peace.”
Guterres’s actions “constitute support of the Hamas terrorist organization and an endorsement of the murder of the elderly, the abduction of babies, and the rape of women,” Cohen stated. “Anyone who supports world peace must support the liberation of Gaza from Hamas.”
Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said “The UN needs a secretary-general who supports the war on terrorism and not a secretary-general who acts according to the script written by Hamas.”
The UAE’s mission wrote a post on X that supporting the resolution is “a moral and humanitarian imperative and we urge all countries to support the call of the secretary-general.”
To be adopted, a resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the five permanent members - the United States, Russia, China, France, or Britain.
Deputy US Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood said the United States does not support any further action by the Security Council.
“However, we remain focused on the difficult and sensitive diplomacy geared to getting more hostages released, more aid flowing into Gaza, and better protection of civilians,” Wood told Reuters.
In his letter to the UNSC, Guterres warned of a humanitarian disaster in Gaza. “I expect public order to completely break down soon [in Gaza] due to the desperate conditions, rendering even limited humanitarian assistance impossible” as a result of the war.
“We are facing a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system. The situation is fast deteriorating into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region. Such an outcome must be avoided at all costs,” he wrote.
Guterres in his letter called for the release of the remaining captives. “Accounts of sexual violence during the attacks are appalling,” he added. But his letter spoke of at “least 15,000 Palestinian deaths in Gaza,” without noting that Hamas fatality figures do not distinguish between Hamas combatants and Gaza civilians. Israel maintains that some 5,000 of those are Hamas terrorists.
Israel has argued that a sustained military campaign led to the release of 105 hostages last month, 81 Israelis and 24 foreign nationals. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week that the IDF’s campaign to oust Hamas from Gaza is the only way to ensure a second hostage deal.
Government spokesman Eylon Levy accused Guterres’ of “using his diplomatic clout to secure Hamas’s survival free and emboldened to perpetrate another October 7 massacre.”
Erdan said that Guterres had fallen to a “new moral low” through the use of Article 99 against Israel, charged that it was yet one more proof of his “distorted bias” against Israel.
His call for a “ceasefire is a call to keep Hamas’s reign of terror in Gaza” when he should have been insisting that Hamas lay down its arms and return to the captives to end the war, Erdan stated.
Instead, he “continues playing into Hamas’s hands” by calling for a measure that would only prolong the fighting by giving Hamas hope, that if it holds out long enough, the international community would force an end to the war.
The United States and its ally Israel oppose a ceasefire, because they believe it would only benefit Hamas. Washington instead supports pauses to protect civilians and allow for the release of hostages taken by Hamas in its October 7 massacre in Israel.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell thew his support behind Guterres on Thursday, as he asked the UNSC to support the ceasefire call, explaining that it must act “immediately to prevent a full collapse of the humanitarian situation in Gaza.”
Palestinian Authority envoy Riyad Mansour told reporters in New York on Thursday that “we are calling for a ceasefire, the secretary general is calling for a ceasefire” as are the European Union and Jewish American activists.
The Security Council has to “listen to this massive call from all corners of the globe,” he explained.
Those who oppose a ceasefire “are a small minority” and those who want to support it “want to save lives,” Mansour said. “I hope the Security Council will succeed tomorrow, and if we do not, we have other options.”
On Sunday, the World Health Organization’s Executive Board plans to hold a special session on the medical situation for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank as a result of the war.
The Foreign Ministry said it was unprecedented for the WHO to weigh in on a country-specific conflict and “is once again an example of the double standard and disproportionate attention towards Israel in the multilateral arena.
“An Executive Board special session “was never called on Ukraine, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Afghanistan, or any other emergency health situation.”
“There is little doubt this session will not address Hamas’s systemic use of hospitals, ambulances, and medical facilities or the atrocities it carried out on October 7, or the medical needs of hostages in Gaza,” the Foreign Ministry stated.
Reuters contributed to this report.