UN Security Council to vote on Trump peace plan for Gaza
The UN Security Council is expected to vote on the draft resolution supporting Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza.
The text presented by the USA will give instructions for the deployment of the International Stabilization Force (ISF) and the establishment of an interim administration there.
The United States says several unnamed countries have offered to contribute to the ISF, but it is unclear whether this will disarm Hamas or operate as a peacekeeping force.
Its genesis is the central blueprint for Trump’s 20-point plan, which last month brought about a ceasefire in the two-year war between Israel and Hamas.
The draft also raises the possibility of a Palestinian state, which Israel strongly opposes.
Intensive negotiations took place over the draft text of the resolution, and Washington warned that any vote against the resolution could lead to a return to conflict with Israel.
In addition to authorizing an ISF that it says would work with Israel and Gaza’s southern neighbor Egypt, the draft also calls for the establishment of a newly trained Palestinian police in Gaza. Until now, the police there had been operating under Hamas authority.
Part of the ISF’s role will be to protect civilians and humanitarian routes, as well as work on the “permanent decommissioning of weapons of non-state armed groups,” including Hamas, according to reports in the final draft.
This would require Hamas to surrender its weapons, something intended to be done under Trump’s peace plan.
But in a statement published overnight, Hamas called the draft resolution “dangerous” and “an attempt to subject the Gaza Strip to international authority.”
It was stated that Palestinian groups rejected any article regarding the demilitarization of Gaza or harming the “right of resistance of the Palestinian people”.
The statement also rejected any foreign military presence in the Gaza Strip, stating that it would mean a violation of Palestinian sovereignty.
The draft also approves the creation of a Peace Board, expected to be chaired by President Trump, that will oversee a group of Palestinian technocrats who will temporarily govern Gaza and take responsibility for its reconstruction.
Following pressure from key Arab states, the final text mentions a possible Palestinian state in the future, but without specifying this as a goal.
Even so, the inclusion of such a reference drew harsh backlash after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s allies in the ruling coalition criticized the draft, including threatening to leave the government if Netanyahu did not back down.
“On the issue of the Palestinian state, we oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state in any region west of Jordan,” he said in a statement on Sunday. [River]This opposition exists, it is valid, and it has not changed one bit.”
Trump’s peace plan essentially suspended the conflict between Israel and Hamas, which has been raging since Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. Approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 people were taken hostage in this attack.
Since then, more than 69,483 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military offensives in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
