The United Nations Security Council has approved a resolution mandating a transitional administration and anInternational Stabilization Force in Gaza that envisions a “credible pathway” to Palestinian statehood.
The resolution, drafted by the United States as part of President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan, passed in a 13-0 vote on Monday, paving the way for the crucial next steps for the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Russia and China abstained from the vote.
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Arab and other Muslim countries that expressed interest in providing troops for an international force had previously indicated that a UN mandate was essential for their participation. At their behest, the US had included more defined language about Palestinian self-determination in the draft to get it over the finish line.
The draft now says “conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood” after the Palestinian Authority, which has limited self-governance in the occupied West Bank, carries out reforms and advances are made in the redevelopment of Gaza.
That language angered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said on Sunday that Israel remained opposed to a Palestinian state and pledged to demilitarise Gaza “the easy way or the hard way”.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also rejected the measure, calling for the assassination of Palestinian Authority officials if the UN backs Palestinian statehood.
US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz said after the vote that the “resolution represents another significant step that will enable Gaza to prosper in an environment that will allow Israel to live in security”.
Amar Bendjama, Algeria’s ambassador, said his country was grateful to Trump, “whose personal engagement has been instrumental in establishing and maintaining the ceasefire in Gaza”.
“But we underline that genuine peace in the Middle East cannot be achieved without justice, justice for the Palestinians who have waited for decades for the establishment of their independent state,” he said.
Hamas rejects resolution
The US resolution says the stabilisation troops will help secure border areas along with a trained and vetted Palestinian police force and they will coordinate with other countries to secure the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza. It says the force should closely consult and cooperate with neighbouring Egypt and Israel.
It also calls for the stabilisation force to ensure “the process of demilitarising the Gaza Strip” and “the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups”. The resolution authorises the force to “use all necessary measures to carry out its mandate”.
Hamas, which has not accepted disarmament, rejected the resolution, saying it failed to meet Palestinians’ rights and demands and sought to impose an international trusteeship on the enclave that Palestinians and resistance factions oppose.
“Assigning the international force with tasks and roles inside the Gaza Strip, including disarming the resistance, strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favour of the occupation,” the group said.
The resolution says Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza “based on standards, milestones, and timeframes linked to demilitarisation”, which would be agreed by the stabilisation force, Israeli forces, the US and the guarantors of the ceasefire.
Russia’s rival resolution
Trump said on his Truth Social platform that the international board of peace overseeing Gaza would “include the most powerful and respected Leaders throughout the World” and thanked countries that “strongly backed the effort, including Qatar, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkiye, and Jordan”.
Russia had circulated a rival resolution stressing that the occupied West Bank and Gaza must be joined as a contiguous state under the Palestinian Authority and underlining the importance of a Security Council role to provide security in Gaza and for implementing the ceasefire.
Reporting from New York, Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo said: “There is some certain criticism of [the US] draft resolution. A lot of people are saying that it simply changes the dynamics, but it still leaves Gazaessentially occupied,just by a different entity.”
Washington and other governments had hoped Moscow would not use its veto power in the UN’s most powerful body to block the adoption of the US resolution.
Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, Marwan Bishara, said passage of the resolution is a “reflection of the imbalance of power on the ground in Gaza in favour of Israel and the imbalance of power in the Middle East in favour of the United States”.
Despite the ceasefire that came into effect on October 10, Israel has continued to carry out deadly attacks in Gaza almost daily and to restrict humanitarian aid.
Israel’s brutal assault has killed more than 69,000 Palestinians in what leading rights groups have described as a genocide.
