US submits its own ceasefire resolution to UN Security Council

The competing draft follows the American announcement that it would veto Algeria’s call for a ceasefire vote Tuesday.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The United States has submitted its own ceasefire resolution to the UN Security Council after announcing that it would veto Algeria’s call for a stop to the Israel-Hamas war that was to be voted on Tuesday, Reuters reported Monday.

American Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield had said that Washington opposed Algeria’s version because it would “run counter” to the hostage deal U.S. diplomats are currently working on with Egypt and Qatar.  It would “enable a prolonged pause in fighting” and the entrance of increased humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

The new text, which Reuters saw, replaces Algeria’s demand for an immediate ceasefire with language that the UNSC “support[s] a temporary ceasefire in Gaza as soon as practicable, based on the formula of all hostages being released, and calls for lifting all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale.”

This would seemingly accord with Israeli wishes, as Jerusalem has repeatedly stated that all of the Israeli and other hostages, both alive and dead, must be returned before it would even think of ceasing its fight against Hamas. Israel has also made clear that at most, it would pause the war for an agreed-upon period, but not end it altogether.

The second part of the draft text would not necessarily mesh with Israel’s stated goal of completely destroying Hamas, as it states its opposition to entering the terror organization’s last major stronghold in Gaza.

“Under current circumstances a major ground offensive into Rafah would result in further harm to civilians and their further displacement including potentially into neighboring countries.”

Egypt, which borders Gaza to the south, has not budged from its position that it will not allow Gazan refugees to enter its territory, fearing that a temporary stay would turn into a permanent one, which might endanger its stability in several ways. For one, Hamas members would be among them, and their extremist Muslim Brotherhood ideology is anathema to Cairo.

This “would have serious implications for regional peace and security, and therefore underscores that such a major ground offensive should not proceed under current circumstances,” the American resolution said.

President Joe Biden has made it clear to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he is against the IDF going in to Rafah until some one million Gazans who flooded the city to escape the war that began in the northern part of the coastal enclave, could be moved to safety. Israel has said it is working on a plan to do so, and has invited other countries and international organizations to help with their own solutions as well.

Netanyahu has in parallel insisted that the IDF must still be allowed to finish off Hamas’ military capabilities. Many world leaders have said it is Israel’s right to do this, after the terrorists’ invasion of Gazan envelope communities on October 7 in which they massacred 1,200 people, the vast majority of them civilians, which is proportionally about 13 times the losses that the U.S. suffered on 9/11.

Four of Hamas’ 24 battalions are still believed to be whole and well in Rafah, as opposed to the others, which have been decimated in the last 4.5 months.  However, it would not make any sense to leave such a force intact to threaten Israel again, according to the government’s entire war cabinet.

Reuters cited International Crisis Group U.N. Director Richard Gowan as saying that “The simple fact that the U.S. is tabling this text at all is a warning shot for Netanyahu. It is the strongest signal the U.S. has sent at the U.N. so far that Israel cannot rely on American diplomatic protection indefinitely.

Israel-Hamas ceasefireIsrael-Hamas warRafahUNSCUS-Israel relations