Tuesday Briefing: U.N. Voted for a Gaza Cease-Fire

The U.N. Security Council yesterday passed a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza for the month of Ramadan, which has two weeks remaining. The vote broke a five-month impasse during which the U.S. vetoed several calls for ending the war, while the humanitarian toll of Israel’s military offensive climbed higher. The resolution passed with 14 votes in favor. The U.S. abstained, which allowed it to pass.

The resolution demands the unconditional and immediate release of all hostages but it does not make the demands for a cease-fire conditional on hostage release — one of Israel’s stated objections to the measure. It remained unclear whether Israel or Hamas would heed the resolution’s call for a halt in hostilities.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the U.S. for allowing the resolution to pass, saying that the abstention “harms the war effort as well as the effort to liberate the hostages.” The Israeli leader said he would cancel a planned high-level delegation to Washington. President Biden had requested the meeting to discuss alternatives to a planned Israeli offensive into Rafah, which American officials have said would create a humanitarian disaster.

On the ground, the Israeli military said its forces had surrounded a hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza while continuing a raid on Al-Shifa Hospital in the north for an eighth day.