More than five months after the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations Security Council approved on Monday, for the first time, a resolution defending an “immediate ceasefire” in the Palestinian enclave – thanks to the abstention of USA and despite the threat from Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had threatened to cancel a delegation’s visit to Washington to discuss the ground operation in Rafah if the allies did not use their veto power and was not doing so. bluff.
“This is a clear setback from the consistent US position in the Security Council since the start of the war,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. The UN vote “damages both the war effort and the effort to free the hostages”, because “it gives Hamas hope that international pressure will allow them to accept a ceasefire without the release of the hostages”, he read. The text also announced the cancellation of the trip of two of the prime minister’s main advisors to the USA.
The purpose of the trip by the Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, and the leader of the National Security Council, Tzachi Hanegbi, was to discuss plans for a ground operation in Rafah. This trip was cancelled, but the Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, was already in Washington and had planned to hold meetings with his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin, and with the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.
Rafah, on the border with Egypt, serves as a refuge for 1.5 million Palestinians and is one of the few entry points for humanitarian aid in the enclave – where more than 33,000 people have died since the start of the war. Israeli plans for a ground operation in this city are at the root of the growing distance between the US and Israel, with US President Joe Biden managing to convince Netanyahu in a phone call not to move forward without discussing alternatives.
The White House said it was “very disappointed” with the cancellation of the trip, denying that there had been a change in US policy at the UN. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby indicated that because the final text of the resolution did not include language that Washington considers essential – namely a condemnation of Hamas – they were unable to support it, hence the abstention.
