UN approves US plan authorising international stabilisation force in Gaza

The UN Security Council has approved a US plan for Gaza that authorises an international stabilisation force to provide security in the devastated territory and envisions a possible future path to an independent Palestinian state.

Russia, which had circulated a rival resolution, abstained along with China on the 13-0 vote.

The US and other countries had hoped Moscow would not use its veto power on the UN’s most powerful body to block the resolution’s adoption.

The vote was a crucial next step for the fragile ceasefire and efforts to outline Gaza’s future following two years of war between Israel and Hamas.

Arab and other Muslim countries that expressed interest in providing troops for an international force had signalled that Security Council authorisation was essential for their participation.

The US resolution endorses President Donald Trump’s 20-point ceasefire plan, which calls for a yet-to-be-established Board of Peace as a transitional authority that Mr Trump would head.

It also authorises the stabilisation force and gives it a wide mandate, including overseeing the borders, providing security and demilitarising the territory. Authorisation for the board and force expire at the end of 2027.

US ambassador Mike Waltz called the resolution “historic and constructive”, saying it starts a new course in the Middle East.

“Today’s resolution represents another significant step towards a stable Gaza that will be able to prosper and an environment that will allow Israel to live in security,” he said.

He stressed that the resolution “is just the beginning”.

During nearly two weeks of negotiations on the US resolution, Arab nations and the Palestinians had pressed the United States to strengthen the original weak language about Palestinian self-determination.

The US revised it to say that after the Palestinian Authority — which now governs parts of the West Bank — makes reforms and after redevelopment of the devastated Gaza Strip advances, “the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood”.

“The United States will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous co-existence,” it adds.

That language angered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had vowed to oppose any attempt to establish a Palestinian state. He has long asserted that creating a Palestinian state would reward Hamas and eventually lead to an even larger Hamas-run state on Israel’s borders.

A key to the resolution’s adoption was support from Arab and Muslim nations pushing for a ceasefire and potentially contributing to the international force.

The US mission to the United Nations distributed a joint statement on Friday with Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Jordan and Turkey calling for a “swift adoption” of the US proposal.

The vote took place amid hopes that Gaza’s fragile ceasefire would be maintained after a war set off by Hamas’s surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7 2023, which killed about 1,200 people.

Israel’s offensive has killed more than 69,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority are women and children.

Russia last week suddenly circulated a rival proposal with stronger language supporting a Palestinian state alongside Israel and stressed that the West Bank and Gaza must be joined as a state under the Palestinian Authority.

It also stripped out references to the transitional board and asked UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres to provide options for an international force to provide security in Gaza and for implementing the ceasefire plan, stressing the importance of a Security Council role.

The US resolution 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”. A big question is how to disarm Hamas, which has not fully accepted that step.

It authorises the force “to use all necessary measures to carry out its mandate” in compliance with international law, which is UN language for the use of military force.

The resolution says the stabilisation troops will help secure border areas, along with a Palestinian police force that they have trained and vetted, and they will co-ordinate with other countries to secure the flow of humanitarian assistance.

It says the force should closely consult and co-operate with neighbouring Egypt and Israel.

As the international force establishes control and brings stability, the resolution says Israeli forces will withdraw from Gaza “based on standards, milestones, and timeframes linked to demilitarisation”.

These must be agreed to by the stabilisation force, Israeli forces, the US and the guarantors of the ceasefire, it says.