US ratchets up pressure on Israel with proposed ceasefire resolution at UN

Antony Blinken says the UN resolution calls for an immediate and sustained ceasefire, in a big development that raises the pressure on Israel to pause its war with Hamas.

Smoke billows over Rafah after an Israeli strike. Picture: AFP.

America’s top diplomat said the US had submitted a United Nations resolution calling for an immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza tied to the release of hostages, raising the pressure on Israel to pause its five-month-old war with Hamas.

“I think that would send a strong message, a strong signal,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said of the draft resolution in an interview with a Saudi government-owned broadcaster during his sixth visit to the Middle East since the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.

It is rare for the U.S. to back – let alone put forward – a resolution that Israel would oppose at the U.N., a forum where Washington has traditionally used its Security Council veto to shield Israel from proposals that aren’t in its interest. The U.S. has repeatedly sided with Israel during Security Council votes on the war in Gaza launched by Israel in response to the attacks by Hamas, which Israel says killed more than 1,200 people, most of them civilians.

In recent weeks, however, as the death toll and suffering in Gaza has become intolerable and Israel has threatened to invade Rafah, the southern Gaza city where more than a million people are sheltering, U.S. officials say they have come to see the U.N. as a means for pressuring Israel to pause fighting on humanitarian grounds. Officials said the U.S. could use Security Council resolutions to signal a rare break with Israel over its war plans.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry (R) and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken give a joint press conference following a meeting in Cairo. Picture: AFP.

Israel’s government, determined to eliminate Hamas from Gaza, says rooting the militants out of Rafah, their last stronghold, is central to its war aims. “If you leave four battalions in Rafah, you’ve lost the war, and Israel is not going to lose the war,” Israel’s Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer said Thursday.

“With or without the United States, we are not going to do it. We have no choice,” he said, speaking on Dan Senor’s podcast “Call Me Back.” The draft U.N. resolution, which could be voted on as soon as this week according to three U.N. diplomats, is likely to be largely symbolic but represents the most significant public divergence between Washington and Israel since the war began.

Other members of the Security Council are expected to oppose the resolution because of wording it contains about restarting operations in Gaza after a pause, the diplomats said.

U.N. watchers said the message sent by the draft would likely be heard by Israel.

“The U.S. is now opening the door to the U.N. shaping the political framework for ending hostilities. That in and of itself may send a chill through Israeli decision makers,” said Richard Gowan, U.N. director at the International Crisis Group.

The U.S. mission to the U.N. didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The U.S. has blocked previous resolutions calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza opposed by Israel, including one in February because it didn’t call for the release of hostages. An alternative draft circulated by the U.S. at the time called for a temporary ceasefire “as soon as practicable” and in tandem with the release of all hostages taken on Oct. 7.

The call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire in the latest U.S. draft is a shift for the Biden administration. The draft repeats the U.S. demand that any ceasefire resolution seek the release of hostages.

The toughened-up language comes ahead of a trip to Washington by senior Israeli officials including Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer and the head of the National Security Council, Tzachi Hanegbi, for talks about alternatives to a ground invasion of Rafah.

“What we don’t want to see is a major ground operation because we don’t see how that can be done without doing terrible harm to civilians,” Blinken said in the interview Wednesday with Al Hadath television.

The U.S. has for weeks warned Israel against invading Rafah without a credible humanitarian and military plan for protecting civilians, but in recent days has dropped that caveat. “But at the same time, it is imperative to do something about Hamas, because Hamas has brought nothing but death and destruction to Palestinians,” said Blinken.

U.S. officials said that they have privately expressed their concern for some time that a full-scale ground invasion under any circumstances would result in catastrophic consequences, and that they have pushed for targeted operations instead.

That sentiment is increasingly being reflected in their public statements, and is expected to dominate discussions between Israeli and Biden administration officials in Washington next week, officials said.

Israel’s campaign in the enclave has left nearly 32,000 people dead, mostly women and children, according to Palestinian health authorities. The figures don’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Israel and Hamas are considering a six-week ceasefire during which 40 hostages would be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel. On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved Israeli intelligence chief David Barnea to meet in Qatar with his counterparts from the U.S. and Egypt for a fresh session of ceasefire negotiations, according to Netanyahu’s office.

Mediators have described the current round of talks as the last chance to secure a truce to avert Israel’s impending plans for an offensive on Rafah, the only major population centre in Gaza that Israeli troops haven’t entered. But Netanyahu on Tuesday said he had made it clear to President Biden that he wouldn’t be dissuaded from invading the city, which borders Egypt.

Dow Jones