Twelve member states voted in favor of the resolution, while Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom abstained, though they acknowledged international dismay over weeks of Security Council deadlock on the conflict. The United States and Britain criticized the resolution, which was drafted by Malta, for not condemning the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. Russia, which continues to wage war in Ukraine after its February 2022 invasion, said the resolution should call for a cease-fire.
Four previous efforts to pass a resolution had failed. On Oct. 18, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution calling for “humanitarian pauses” because it did not mention Israel’s right to self-defense. A week later, the Council rejected competing proposals from the United States and Russia.
The long-awaited unified statement comes during mounting concern over civilian casualties and a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and adds to growing pressure on Israel to agree to some kind of halt in fighting. More than 11,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, according to the most recent numbers from the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry said Friday it was no longer able to keep count because of blackouts and fighting near hospitals, and that the death toll is now far higher. Hospitals have lost power and vital supplies including food, water and medicine are in short supply, putting Gazans in increasingly dire conditions.
The Security Council has 15 members, containing five permanent members with veto power and 10 nonpermanent members elected for two–year terms. The United Nations has not passed a resolution on what it calls “the Palestinian question” since 2016. Resolutions made by the Security Council are technically binding, though they are not always followed.
Some leaders, including President Biden, are calling for humanitarian pauses in fighting to facilitate aid deliveries; while a growing group, including French President Emmanuel Macron and leaders of many Arab states, is calling for a more formal cease-fire. The terms have taken on loaded political meaning, sparking debate and reflecting divisions. Israel last week agreed to “tactical, localized pauses” lasting about four hours each day, a step the White House, other leaders and aid organizations said was not enough.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, said the Security Council should have called for a cease-fire by now and accused Israel of trying to “complete the Nakba,” referring to the mass displacement of Palestinian people in 1948. What is happening in Gaza is “a failure of humanity of terrifying magnitude,” he said.
Israel’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, Brett Jonathan Miller, said the Security Council resolution was “detached from the reality on the ground” and makes “no mention of what led up to this moment,” referring to the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, during which the militant group killed 1,200 and took hundreds hostage.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. envoy, expressed similar concern, saying she is “horrified” that some members of the Council “cannot bring themselves” to condemn the attacks. “Although the United States is deeply disappointed by what is not in this text,” she said, “we support many of the important provisions this Council has adopted.”
The United States has repeatedly voted against resolutions that do not condemn Hamas, including a U.N. General Assembly resolution calling for a “humanitarian truce” in October. Some are seeing Wednesday’s abstention as a shift.
Human Rights Watch said in a statement that the U.S. abstention “should be a wake–up call to Israeli authorities that global concern, even among its allies, is strong.”
Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.
