France proposed a draft United Nations Security Council resolution seeking options for possible UN monitoring of the Gaza ceasefire and proposals to help the Palestinian Authority take responsibility.
“It is an ambitious project. It will take time,” French ambassador to the UN Nicolas de Riviere said about the text, which will require at least nine votes in favor and no veto from the other four permanent members – the United States, Britain, Russia and China.
The draft resolution, seen by Reuters, also calls for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages still held by Hamas and others in Gaza.
Israel’s ally, the United States, abstained from voting last month to allow the 15-member council to demand an immediate ceasefire for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which ends next week, and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. The warring parties did not implement it.
A ceasefire, including the release of some hostages, was last reached in November.
Draft UN text condemns Hamas attacks on October 7. In 2007, Hamas overthrew the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip.
Along with efforts to end the war, global pressure has grown to continue efforts to achieve a two-state solution – with an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
In the draft resolution of the Security Council “it is decided that a negotiated solution should be urgently reached through decisive and irreversible measures taken by the parties towards a two-state solution in which two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, exist side by side in peace”.
It also calls for a “massive delivery of humanitarian aid” to civilians in Gaza.
The global food security authority has warned that famine is imminent in parts of Gaza, where more than three-quarters of its 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes and parts of the territory are in ruins, Fena writes.
