UN Security Council calls for immediate cease-fire in Gaza during Muslim holy month of Ramadan

UNITED NATIONS (CN) — The United Nations Security Council on Monday called for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the international council’s first demand to halt fighting which has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians.

The resolution calls for an immediate and unconditional stop to violence in Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends April 9, to expedite urgently needed humanitarian assistance in Gaza, where famine looms in the besieged region and escalation of the war could drive half of the territory’s 2.3 million people to the brink of starvation.

The United States, which vetoed previous draft resolutions calling for a cease-fire, abstained on Monday.

The remaining 14 council members voted for the resolution, which many members said was a step “leading to a lasting and sustainable cease-fire.”

In addition to an immediate cessation of bombing and military attacks between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza, the resolution calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, including Israelis held by Hamas and Palestinians detained in Israeli jails without trial.

Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. representative to the United Nations, said the United States opted to abstain from voting on the resolution because "certain key edits were ignored, including our request to add a condemnation of Hamas."

Israeli bombardment of Palestinians in Gaza is now in its sixth month, in which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas in response to a deadly attack by its fighters on Oct. 7, 2023.

Israel’s continuing assault has pushed displaced Gazans to the southernmost town of Rafah, the last area in Gaza to remain free from a large-scale invasion.

Riyad Mansour, ambassador of the Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, welcomed the cease-fire resolution as a necessary turning point in the conflict but also called it long overdue. 

“This must lead to saving lives on the ground, this must signal this assault of atrocities against our people,” he said. “A nation is being murdered, a nation is being dispossessed, and a nation is being displaced.”

Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan, permanent representative of Israel to the United Nations, called the security council’s resolution without explicit condemnation of Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7 “a moral contradiction” and “a disgrace.”

“It was the Hamas massacre that started this war,” he told the council Monday afternoon. “Israel did not start this war nor did Israel want this war.

“This is a tragedy and I am disgusted,” he said at the conclusion of his speech.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a planned visit to Washington this week to discuss Rafah, in response to United States’ decision to abstain rather than exercise its veto power to a resolution calling for a cease-fire without conditioning it on the release of hostages.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Monday that the abstention is not a change in U.S. policy.

“The broad outlines of what we support are supported in the text of the resolution,” he said. Kirby said Israel’s decision to cancel the meetings is “certainly not ideal,” but he did not lay out any potential consequences Israel might face for moving forward with an operation. “We’re very disappointed that they won’t be coming to Washington, D.C., to allow us to have a full conversation with them about a viable alternative to a ground invasion of Rafah,” he said.

On Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres traveled to Brussels to meet with European leaders and urged them to back a cease-fire.

He condemned Hamas for the October attack and for violations of international humanitarian law, but he also called the number of civilian casualties in Gaza “unprecedented in my time as secretary-general.”

“A basic principle of international humanitarian law is the protection of civilians,” he said. “We must stick to principles, in Ukraine as in Gaza, without double standards.”

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