Middle East Crisis: U.N. Security Council Passes U.S.-Backed Cease-Fire Resolution (2024)

Neither Israel nor Hamas has formally embraced the plan adopted by the Security Council.

In passing the resolution, the Council delivered a diplomatic victory to Washington, which had vetoed three previous cease-fire resolutions before the Council.

“The only way to end this cycle of violence and build a durable peace is through a political settlement,” said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Ms. Thomas-Greenfield said that the United States would work to make sure that Israel agreed to the deal and that Qatar and Egypt would work to bring Hamas to the negotiating table.

“Colleagues, today we voted for peace,” she said.

The resolution laid out a three-phase plan that begins with an immediate cease-fire, the release of all hostages in exchange for Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons, the return of displaced Gazans to their homes and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

The second phase calls for a permanent cease-fire with the agreement of both parties, and the third phase would consist of a multiyear reconstruction plan for Gaza and return of the remains of deceased hostages.

“The proposal says if the negotiations take longer than six weeks for phase one, the cease-fire will still continue as long as negotiations continue,” the resolution said. It also rejected “any attempt at demographic or territorial change in the Gaza Strip, including any actions that reduce the territory of Gaza.”

Israel’s representative to the U.N., Reut Shapir Ben-Naftaly, did not say that Israel had accepted the terms, but said her country’s goals in the war had not changed and that it would use military operations to free hostages as it did just two days ago.

“We will continue until all of the hostages are returned and Hamas’s military capabilities are dismantled,” Ms. Shapir Ben-Naftaly told the Council. She said if Hamas leaders freed all hostages and turned themselves in, “not one shot would be fired.”

In a statement, Hamas said it “welcomes what is included in the Security Council resolution that affirmed the permanent cease-fire in Gaza, the complete withdrawal, the prisoners’ exchange, the reconstruction, the return of the displaced to their areas of residence, the rejection of any demographic change or reduction in the area of the Gaza Strip, and the delivery of needed aid to our people in the Strip.”

The Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, said that the Council remained in the dark about the details of the U.S.’s agreement with Israel and had “essentially voted for a cat in the bag.”

But Mr. Nebenzya said Russia had decided to abstain because the resolution had widespread support by Arab countries.

The American Mission to the United Nations began drafting the resolution and negotiating over it in the days after President Biden announced on May 31 that Israel had put forth a cease-fire deal. The resolution follows the same framework that Mr. Biden set out, according to Nate Evans, the spokesman for the U.S. mission.

“This deal is how we will achieve the cease-fire with the release of hostages,” said Mr. Evans. “Israel has accepted the deal. Now it’s time for Hamas to do it.”

Israeli officials have not publicly endorsed the cease-fire plan, and they have not said whether they would abide by the deal if Hamas accepts it. A day after Mr. Biden’s announcement, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement that appeared to undercut the proposal, calling a permanent cease-fire a “nonstarter.”

Diplomats said that during negotiations, the United States asked Security Council members to take its word that Israel was on board, and refused to incorporate clear language in the text that Israel accept the deal.

The draft resolution states only that Israel has accepted the U.S. proposal, but it “calls” for Hamas to accept the deal. Russia and China and Algeria, the only Arab member of the Security Council, had said in back-channel negotiations that the text appeared too lopsided in favor of Israel.

Ever since the war started eight months ago, the Security Council has been in a deadlock over finding a way to end the conflict and fulfill its mandate to uphold international peace and stability.

China, which vetoed a cease-fire resolution put forth by the United States in March because it said the proposal did not go far enough, said that it had voted in favor of this one because it wants to see the fighting end and the hostages released.

Its ambassador to the U.N., Fu Cong, said China supported it even though the resolution was “ambiguous in many aspects.”

“We still have valid concerns on whether the parties concerned will accept the terms of the cease-fire and whether the arrangement can be carried out smoothly,” he said.

The United States has vetoed three resolutions calling for a cease-fire. In March, after the U.S. abstained, the Council passed a resolution calling for a humanitarian cease-fire and more desperately needed aid to be allowed into Gaza during Ramadan.

Neither of the parties has abided by that resolution.

Blinken urges Mideast leaders to press Hamas over a cease-fire.

It was the second stop of Mr. Blinken’s three-day Mideast tour; he and the prime minister met late in the evening and Mr. Blinken was expected to meet later with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv, the State Department said.

During the meeting, Mr. Blinken underscored the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security, including ensuring that Oct. 7 can never be repeated. The proposal, he added, would unlock the possibility of calm along Israel’s northern border and further integration with countries in the region.

Mr. Blinken also updated the prime minister on diplomatic efforts to plan for the post-conflict period, emphasizing the importance of those efforts to providing long-term peace, security, and stability to Israelis and Palestinians alike. Mr. Blinken also emphasized the importance of preventing the conflict from spreading.

Earlier on Monday, Mr. Blinken held talks in Cairo with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, whose government has helped mediate negotiations between Israel and Hamas over a proposed cease-fire deal offered by Israel and backed by the United States.

“My message to governments throughout the region is: If you want a cease-fire, press Hamas to say yes,” Mr. Blinken told reporters before departing Cairo.

But Mr. Blinken was also expected to press Israeli officials over the proposal, which President Biden has endorsed.

More than two weeks have passed since Israel presented the deal to Hamas, and even Mr. Netanyahu’s government has not formally embraced it. The Israeli prime minister, under pressure from far-right members of his government, has said publicly that the Israeli assault in Gaza should continue until Hamas’s military and governing capabilities are destroyed.

There has also been no official response to the proposal from Hamas. Some Hamas officials have suggested that they cannot agree to a limited halt to the fighting without greater assurances that Israel is prepared to negotiate an end to the war. U.S. officials say they are awaiting more definitive word from Hamas.

It was also unclear whether the Israeli raid on Saturday, which freed four hostages from Hamas captivity but killed dozens of Palestinians, might have further set back the chances that the militant group would agree to a deal.

Tensions have grown between Mr. Biden and Mr. Netanyahu over the number of Palestinian civilians killed by Israel’s military during the war in Gaza. Mr. Biden said last month that he had paused the delivery to Israel of some larger bombs to ensure that they were not used in an assault on the Gazan city of Rafah.

Mr. Blinken is visiting Israel at a time of domestic tumult, following the move by Benny Gantz, a Netanyahu rival, and his centrist National Unity party to leave the emergency wartime government in protest of Mr. Netanyahu’s handling of the war.

On his eighth trip to the region since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks, Mr. Blinken also plans to visit Qatar, another Arab nation mediating between Israel and Hamas. Qatar hosts Hamas’s political leaders, though the group’s ultimate decisions are made by its leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar.

Mr. Blinken’s efforts come a few days after inconclusive visits to Egypt and Qatar last week by the C.IA. director, William J. Burns, and Brett McGurk, the top White House official for Middle East affairs, in pursuit of a cease-fire deal.

In Jordan, Mr. Blinken will attend a conference Tuesday on humanitarian aid for Gaza co-hosted by Jordan, Egypt and the United Nations.

Israel’s Parliament revives a bill on drafting ultra-Orthodox men into the military.

Many secular Israelis have long lamented the draft exemptions for the most religious members of society. The issue has taken new prominence since the Hamas-led attack in Israel on Oct. 7 set off a war that has prompted repeated call-ups of reserve soldiers.

The bill, which revives a proposal made in 2022, would limit the exemption for young ultra-Orthodox men enrolled in religious study, establish recruitment quotas for them and provide alternative service options, among other changes. Some critics contend, however, that the proposal would not significantly increase military service among the ultra-Orthodox, known in Hebrew as Haredim.

The bill was advanced in May by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an apparent effort to deter Israel’s Supreme Court from taking the lead on the matter. The justices are currently considering whether the government must immediately begin drafting the ultra-Orthodox, following the expiration of a law last year that was temporarily extended and has expired again.

The vote on Tuesday was widely seen as intended to send a signal to the court that the Knesset was addressing the issue. The court ordered the government to address it long ago, but years of legislative efforts have failed to produce meaningful change.

Some members of Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud party said that they would support the bill’s revival in order to speed up the legislative process, but they promised to demand changes before it advanced.

The Israeli attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, has pressed for immediate conscription of the country’s ultra-Orthodox, arguing that the government’s inability to pass new legislation did not excuse the failure to begin drafting the Haredim after the expiration of the previous exemption law.

The dispute is rooted in decisions made in the years surrounding Israel’s founding, when the country’s secular leadership promised autonomy and privileges to the ultra-Orthodox minority in exchange for their support in creating a largely secular state. Along with being exempted from the draft, the Haredim are allowed to run their own education system.

When the numbers of the Haredim were relatively small, their privileges mattered less to the Israeli mainstream. But they are Israel’s fastest-growing population, now numbering more than one million, or roughly 13 percent of the population, up from 40,000, or 5 percent, in 1948. They are expected to make up about 16 percent of the nation by 2030.

If the Supreme Court can be persuaded that Mr. Netanyahu’s government is making a serious effort to address the issue, the justices may give the Knesset time to pass a law. If not, the court may decide to order immediate action, and that could lead to a crisis for Mr. Netanyahu, whose coalition relies on the support of the ultra-Orthodox.

Gazans in the area where hostages were rescued plead for an end to the war.

Mohamed al Tahrani, a resident of the neighborhood, said that he had spent months seeking safety from the fighting. “For the millionth time, we deliver a message to the international community,” he said. “We don’t want aid. We want you to stop the war.”

Gazan health officials said that more than 200 people had been killed in the raid. The Israel military said it was aware of fewer than 100 casualties, but gave no further details. It was unclear how many of the casualties were civilians.

Israel’s military says 3 recently rescued hostages were held in a home of a Hamas member.

More than 274 people were killed during the raid, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The Israeli military said that the death toll was less than 100. Neither the Israeli military nor Palestinian health officials provided a breakdown of civilians and combatants killed in the raid.

Mr. Aljamal’s death was confirmed by Gaza’s Government Media Office on Sunday, which said he had worked for the Hamas-affiliated news agency, Palestine Now.

On Sunday, the Israeli military said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app: “The hostages were held captive by Abdallah Aljamal and members of his family in their home. This is further evidence of the deliberate use of civilian homes and buildings by the Hamas terrorist organization to hold Israeli hostages captive in the Gaza Strip.”

Israel’s military has said for months that civilian casualties in Gaza are inevitable because Hamas hides its forces within the population.

However, the Israeli military appeared to be stepping back on Monday from its post a day earlier on the X platform, formerly Twitter, that implied that Mr. Aljamal was a journalist for Al Jazeera, an influential news organization based in Qatar.

In that post, the military showed what appeared to be a screenshot of a photo and brief biography of Mr. Aljamal on the news organization’s website. “No press vest can make him innocent of the crimes he has committed,” the post said, adding, “Al Jazeera: what’s this terrorist doing on your website.”

Al Jazeera refuted the accusation on Sunday, saying that “these allegations are completely unfounded” and that Mr. Aljamal had “never worked” for the network. Rather, it said, he had contributed to an op-ed in 2019. A search of Al Jazeera’s website for his byline surfaces a co-written opinion piece from January of that year collecting accounts of six Palestinians who had been held in Israeli prisons. News organizations frequently publish opinion pieces from contributors who are not on staff and with whom they have no ongoing contractual relationship.

Al Jazeera is a major source of news in the Arab world and has highlighted civilian suffering in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused it of harming Israel’s security and inciting violence against its soldiers. The news organization has been under a temporary ban from operating in Israel since May 5 — an unusual step that critics denounced as anti-democratic and part of a broader crackdown on dissent over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

A 35-day ban on Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel was extended by an additional 45 days last Wednesday, after the Israeli cabinet agreed Al Jazeera’s broadcasts posed a threat to security.

On Monday, the Israeli military said it had no comment on Al Jazeera’s rebuttal, referring a Times reporter back to its Sunday Telegram post, which identified Mr. Aljamal only as a member of Hamas. However, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs continued to amplify the accusation that he was connected to Al Jazeera, reposting on Monday a report by The New York Post that cited the military’s Sunday post on X.

It was not possible to ascertain independently whether the hostages had been held in Mr. Aljamal’s home and, if so, under what circ*mstances.

Given that Abdallah Aljamal is a relatively common name in Gaza, it was also not possible to be certain that the person who wrote the op-ed was the same person whose home Israel’s military said was used to hold the hostages.

According to a preliminary estimate by the Committee to Protect Journalists, more than 100 journalists and media workers have been killed during Israel’s campaign in Gaza, which began on Oct. 7 when Hamas launched an attack on Israel. It calls that an unprecedented toll on Palestinian journalists.

Israeli officials have said that they believed that some of those journalists were also members of Hamas, an assertion that serves to cast doubt on the neutrality of some of the reporting conducted by Palestinian journalists. Because foreign media are barred from entering the enclave outside of special tours closely monitored by the military, Palestinian journalists have become a crucial source of information about prosecution of the war and its impact on civilians.

Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting.