UN Security Council calls for immediate ceasefire in Gaza | Wilnesh News

The United Nations Security Council on Monday demanded an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages after the United States abstained from the vote.

The remaining 14 council members voted in favor of the resolution, which was sponsored by the body’s 10 elected members.

Washington had resisted the term ceasefire in the early days of the nearly six-month war in Gaza and used its veto to protect U.S. ally Israel in retaliation for an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that Israel said killed 1,200 people.

But amid growing global pressure for a ceasefire in a war that has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, the United States abstained from Monday’s vote to allow the Security Council to demand an immediate ceasefire during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Two weeks.

It also demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.

Israel says Hamas took 253 hostages in the Oct. 7 attack.

The Security Council resolution also “stresses the urgent need to expand humanitarian assistance throughout the Gaza Strip and strengthen the protection of civilians, and reiterates the call for the removal of all obstacles to the large-scale delivery of humanitarian assistance.”

Israeli Army Radio reported shortly before the start of the Security Council meeting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would cancel a planned delegation to Washington if the United States did not veto the resolution.

The United States vetoed three Security Council draft resolutions on the Gaza war. It had also abstained twice before, allowing the Security Council to pass resolutions aimed at increasing aid to Gaza and calling for an extension to the truce.

Russia and China also vetoed two U.S.-drafted resolutions on the conflict in October and on Friday respectively.