Politics Nov 17, 2025 5:27 PM EST
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council on Monday approved a U.S. plan for Gaza that authorizes an international stabilization 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 U.S. and other countries had hoped Moscow would not use its veto power on the United Nations’ 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 signaled that Security Council authorization was essential for their participation.
The U.S. 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 Trump would head. It also authorizes the stabilization force and gives it a wide mandate, including overseeing the borders, providing security and demilitarizing the territory. Authorization for the board and force expire at the end of 2027.
READ MORE: Read Trump’s 20-point proposal to end the war in Gaza
U.S. 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.”
Stronger language on Palestinian state helps get the US plan over the finish line
During nearly two weeks of negotiations on the U.S. resolution, Arab nations and the Palestinians had pressed the United States to strengthen the original weak language about Palestinian self-determination.
The U.S. 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 coexistence,” 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 U.S. mission to the United Nations distributed a joint statement Friday with Qatar, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Jordan and Turkey calling for “swift adoption” of the U.S. proposal.
Russia had floated its own plan
The vote took place amid hopes that Gaza’s fragile ceasefire would be maintained after a war set off by Hamas’ surprise attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people. Israel’s more than two-year offensive has killed over 69,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, which doesn’t 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 U.N. 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.
What else the U.S. proposal says
The U.S. resolution calls for the stabilization force to ensure “the process of demilitarizing 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 authorize the force “to use all necessary measures to carry out its mandate” in compliance with international law, which is U.N. language for the use of military force.
The resolution says the stabilization troops will help secure border areas, along with a Palestinian police force that they have trained and vetted, and they will coordinate with other countries to secure the flow of humanitarian assistance. It says the force should closely consult and cooperate with neighboring 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 demilitarization.” These must be agreed to by the stabilization force, Israeli forces, the U.S. and the guarantors of the ceasefire, it says.
Gaza stabilization force proposal by U.S. gets pushback from Russia, China and Arabs
World Nov 13, 2025 6:59 PM EST
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A U.S. proposal to provide a United Nations mandate for an international stabilization force in Gaza is facing opposition from Russia, China and some Arab countries, which have expressed unease about a yet-to-be established board that would temporarily govern the territory and the lack of any transitional role for the Palestinian Authority.
The Chinese and the Russians — two veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council — have called for the “Board of Peace” under President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan to be removed from the resolution entirely, according to four U.N. diplomats briefed on the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations.
In the latest draft released late Wednesday and obtained by The Associated Press, the U.S. maintains the language around the board while providing further commitment to Palestinian self-determination. although the language remains weak.
While some of the responses to the U.S. proposal reflect typical negotiations between countries — with detailed back-and-forth and revisions in language — the objection to the transitional board indicates that wide gaps have emerged between some members of the U.N.’s most powerful body and the U.S. following more than two years of war.
At the same time, other members said quick action would avoid upending the progress toward peace, one diplomat said.
That was the message Thursday from the U.S. mission to the U.N., which said in a statement that the “attempts to sow discord” have “grave, tangible and entirely avoidable consequences for Palestinians in Gaza.” It urged the council to unite and pass the resolution.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also has called on the council to pass the resolution without delay.
“I think we’re making good progress on the language of the resolution, and hopefully we’ll have action on it very soon,” he told reporters Wednesday before departing a G7 foreign ministers meeting in Canada. “We don’t want to lose momentum on this.”
UN Security Council members sought changes to the U.S. proposal
The U.S. first circulated a draft resolution last week to the 15 members of the Security Council that would give a broad international mandate to the stabilization force to provide security in Gaza through the end of 2027, working with the yet-to-be-established Board of Peace. Arab and other countries that have expressed interest in participating in the force have indicated that such a mandate is necessary for them to contribute troops.
Russia, China and Algeria voiced their opposition to that draft, and all but two of the other Security Council members submitted amendments, one of the diplomats said.
The sticking points surrounded the pathway to an independent Palestinian state and timeline for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, according to two of the diplomats. The new draft this week responds to objections that the resolution didn’t envision a future independent Palestinian state — but without absolutes.
It says after reforms to the Palestinian Authority are “faithfully carried out and Gaza redevelopment has advanced, the conditions may 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 coexistence,” it adds.
U.S. makes changes but keeps transitional authority
The new draft adds that as the stabilization force “establishes control and stability,” the Israeli military will withdraw from the Gaza Strip. It reiterates that the step would be based on “standards, milestones and timeframes linked to demilitarization and agreed” by Israel, the stabilization force, the U.S. and others.
The United Arab Emirates, a major U.S. ally in the peace negotiations, said publicly this week that it does not yet see a clear framework for the proposed stabilization force in Gaza and, under the current circumstances, will not take part in it.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes Palestinian statehood and a Gaza governed by the Palestinian Authority, which runs pockets of the West Bank. But the language in Trump’s plan seems to encourage a role for a Palestinian state.
Other countries on the Security Council have asked for further clarification on the Board of Peace, including who will be on it and how it will operate. The new draft did not make big changes regarding the board.
Some countries push quick action to preserve momentum
Some council members say swift adoption of any proposal with the U.N. stamp of approval would be wise to keep up with the positive momentum on the ground, one diplomat said.
That diplomat and others said the Americans could get frustrated with the negotiations and decide to go forward unilaterally with a force from willing countries that would not have U.N. backing.
The U.S. likely has three options going forward, another diplomat said:
— Accept some meaningful amendments.
— Put its draft to a vote, needing nine votes to pass and no veto by any of the Security Council’s permanent members: Russia, China, France, Britain and the U.S.
— Bring together nations in a “coalition of the willing” outside the U.N. to take on and fund the stabilization of Gaza.
Whether Russia or China would veto a new draft if the U.S. puts it to a vote without significant changes is uncertain.
The same diplomat said Moscow and Beijing had sought more than half the draft gutted and only want the stabilization force and for it to report to the Security Council.
Some details of the U.S. draft resolution
The current draft calls for the force to ensure “the process of demilitarizing the Gaza Strip” and “the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups.” A big question in Trump’s 20-step plan for a ceasefire and reconstruction in the territory is how to disarm Hamas, which has not fully accepted that step.
The text says the stabilization troops would help secure border areas, along with a Palestinian police force that they have trained and vetted, as well as coordinate with other countries to secure the flow of humanitarian assistance. It calls for the force to closely consult and cooperate with neighboring Egypt and Israel.
It emphasizes the “full resumption” of aid to Gaza by the United Nations, Red Cross and Red Crescent and ensuring that those needed supplies are not diverted.
Gaza death toll tops 69,000 as Israel and Hamas exchange more remains
World Nov 8, 2025 12:19 PM EST
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Over 69,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war so far, Gaza health officials said Saturday, as both sides completed the latest exchange of bodies under the terms of the tenuous ceasefire.
The latest jump in deaths occurred as more bodies are recovered from the rubble in the devastated strip since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10, and as previously unidentified bodies are identified. The toll also includes Palestinians killed by strikes since the truce took hold, which Israel says target remaining militants.
READ MORE: Another set of hostage remains has been handed over in Gaza, Israel says
Israel on Saturday returned the remains of another 15 Palestinians to Gaza, according to hospital officials in the strip, a day after militants returned the remains of a hostage to Israel. He was identified as Lior Rudaeff, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ’s office. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Rudaeff was born in Argentina.
The exchanges are the central part of the ceasefire’s initial phase, which requires that Hamas return all hostage remains as quickly as possible. For each Israeli hostage returned, Israel has been releasing the remains of 15 Palestinians.
The truce is aimed at winding down the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and the Palestinian militant group. It began with the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.
Also Saturday, Israeli settlers staged two attacks on Palestinian farmers, paramedics, activists and journalists in the occupied West Bank as settler violence reaches new highs in the territory.
‘I have not lost hope’
Palestinians on Saturday checked the newly returned remains. Ahmed Dheir, director of forensic medicine at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, said the remains of 300 people have now been returned, with 89 identified.
“We do not have sufficient resources or the DNA to match them with the martyrs’ families,” Dheir said. Unidentified ones will be buried in batches.
Hopeful families looked into the body bags of decomposed remains. “Close it, it’s not him,” one family said.
“I always come here. I have not lost hope. I am still waiting for him,” said the mother of a missing boy, who did not give her name.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said the number of people killed there since the war began has risen to 69,169. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by independent experts.
The ministry said 284 people were added to the total after their identities were verified between Oct. 31 and Nov. 7.
And over the past three days, 10 bodies were brought to Gaza hospitals — nine retrieved from under the rubble and one newly killed, the ministry said. Since the ceasefire began, 241 people have been killed in Gaza, it said.
It added that a large number of Palestinians remain missing.
Israel’s military on Saturday said soldiers killed two militants who had approached troops, one in northern Gaza and the other in the south.
Settlers descend on the Palestinian olive harvest
Palestinian health officials said 11 people were injured in an attack by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including journalists, medics, international activists and farmers, as settler violence reaches new highs during this year’s olive harvest.
The U.N. humanitarian office has reported more Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians and their property in the West Bank in October than in any other month since the office began keeping track in 2006. There were over 260 attacks, or an average of eight incidents per day, the office said.
Activists and medics have flocked to this year’s olive harvest to help Palestinian farmers safely reach their fields.
A video circulating in Palestinian media showed the inside of a West Bank hospital where the injured — bandaged and bloody — were brought from Saturday’s attack on the town of Beita.
Jonathan Pollak, a longtime activist, told the AP he was picking olives when dozens of masked Israeli settlers, armed with clubs, descended, chasing them and lobbing rocks.
Pollak said he saw five settlers converge on a journalist and her security guard. He watched the settlers beat and bludgeon her, denting her helmet. Pollak was hit in the head with a rock and taken to the hospital.
“It’s a pattern we see every day,” Pollak said. “This is just one finger in the iron fist of Israeli policy aiming to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their land.”
There was no immediate Israeli comment.
Rights groups say that arrests for settler violence are rare, and prosecutions even rarer. Israel’s left-leaning Haaretz newspaper reported in 2022 that based on statistics from the Israeli police, charges were pressed in only 3.8% of cases of settler violence, with most cases opened and closed without action being taken.
Also Saturday, Palestinian paramedics reported another settler attack in a nearby village, Burin. The Palestinian Red Crescent said settlers injured four international activists and one 57-year-old man.
Israel’s military said soldiers responded to a report of rock-throwing at an Israeli vehicle and that Israeli civilians then hurled rocks at harvesters. It said Israeli and Palestinian civilians were injured.
Frankel reported from Jerusalem and Abou AlJoud from Beirut.
Reaction in Gaza to UN resolution ‘overwhelmingly sceptical’
Reporting from Gaza City
The reaction in Gaza to this UN resolution is overwhelmingly sceptical and in many cases deeply negative.
For people here, the idea of an international stabilisation force is not viewed as a guarantee of protection but rather a foreign security arrangement imposed without their consent.
Many Palestinians feel its presence might place further restrictions and controls on them, which is seen as an extension of the occupation.
We have also heard concerns about the mandate that has been assigned, regarding policing, security arrangements, border security and the demilitarisation process.
People believe that in this phase of the ceasefire deal, there is a stark preference for security arrangements rather than conducting a comprehensive alleviation of the humanitarian crisis across the Strip.
A question that has been echoing among Palestinians in Gaza is whether this force will afford them protection and prevent Israel from continuing its air strikes across the Strip.
What did the UN Security Council members say?
-
- The UK said it voted for the resolution to advance the US plan for Palestinians and Israelis and stressed the urgent need to deploy the force, open all crossings and enable unhindered aid into Gaza.
- France said it voted yes to “support the ongoing peace efforts” and meet the “most urgent needs of the population”, including the delivery of humanitarian aid and disarmament of Hamas.
- South Korea said it welcomed the Board of Peace, the ISF and the full resumption of aid.
- Slovenia said the resolution offers the best chance for the truce to lead to lasting peace and reaffirmed its support for the Palestinian right to self-determination.
- Denmark, too, called the plan the “best chance for lasting peace”, enabling Palestinians to shape their future and reunite Gaza with the occupied West Bank under a reformed Palestinian Authority.
- Gaza stabilisation force will not be subject to UN rules: Analyst
- Daniel Forti, a senior UN analyst with the International Crisis Group, says there needs to be a credible creation process for the international stabilisation force (ISF).
- He said the Security Council has authorised organisations that are not the UN, including coalitions such as NATO, to launch military intervention with its legal blessings.
- “And that was the basic concept of what the US put forward for the ISF,” he told Al Jazeera from New York City.
- “The ISF is not meant to be a UN Blue Helmet mission. It will not be led or overseen by the UN, and will not follow its procedures or its rules. But it will have the council’s legitimacy and its backing,” he said.
- The ISF will also not be subject to the UN’s traditional practices for mobilising troops or funding and missions, he said.
- “So this will very much depend on the countries that want to contribute boots on the ground and pay for the stabilisation force.”
- Forti added that humanitarian groups in Gaza have noted a need for a mission that has the permission to use force, in order to maintain law and order, in the war-torn territory.
Palestinian Authority welcomes UN resolution on Gaza
The Palestinian Authority has hailed the passage of the US resolution on Gaza.
In a statement carried by the Wafa news agency, the PA said the US plan “affirms the establishment of a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance and the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and the establishment of their independent state”.
The PA, which is based in Ramallah, also expressed its “full readiness to cooperate” with the Trump administration and the UN to “ensure the implementation of this resolution in a way that ends the suffering of our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem”.
This comes after Hamas, which controls Gaza, slammed the US resolution.
In a statement earlier, Hamas said the resolution does not meet Palestinian demands and assigning an international force to disarm resistance groups in Gaza “strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favour of the occupation”.
‘A day of shame for the UN’: Ex-UN official slams Security Council
Craig Mokhiber, a former senior UN human rights official, has described today’s vote as a “day of shame for the United Nations”.
“Not a single member of the Council had the courage, principle, or respect for international law to vote against this US-Israel colonial outrage,” Mokhiber said in a post on X.
“This proposal has been rejected by Palestinian civil society and factions, and defenders of human rights and international law everywhere,” he said, adding that the “struggle for Palestinian freedom will continue”.
Mokhiber was the former director of the New York Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and left his post in 2023 in protest over the UN’s failure to prevent Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
What do we know about the UN resolution on Gaza?
- The UNSC has approved the US plan for Gaza, including backing the creation and deployment of an international stabilisation force.
- The vote passed by 13 votes in favour, with Russia and China abstaining, expressing concern over Palestinian participation and the lack of a clear role for the UN in the future of Gaza.
- The resolution backs the creation of a so-called board of peace, envisioned as a transitional authority with sweeping legal authority over Gaza governance, that would oversee reconstruction, security and economic recovery of Gaza, as well as coordinating the delivery of public services and humanitarian assistance.
- It does not define who will be on the board of peace and calls for minimal UN direct involvement.
- The resolution also authorises an international stabilisation force – not a UN peacekeeping force – to work in consultation with Israel and Egypt to demilitarise Gaza by decommissioning weapons and destroying military infrastructure, and train a Palestinian police force.
- The resolution authorises a mandate for the board of peace and “international civil and security presences” until the end of 2027.
- The US resolution had wide support from Arab and Muslim countries, including the Palestinian Authority.
- Hamas has rejected the resolution, saying it “imposes an international guardianship mechanism on the Gaza Strip”.
How has Hamas responded to the UN resolution?
Hamas has slammed the UN resolution on Gaza, saying in a statement it does not meet the “political and humanitarian demands and rights” of the Palestinian people.
- Hamas said that assigning an international force to disarm groups fighting Israeli occupation in Gaza “strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favour of the occupation”.
- It said that any international force “must be deployed only at the borders to separate forces, monitor the ceasefire, and must be fully under UN supervision”, adding that such a force should operate “exclusively in coordination with official Palestinian institutions”.
- It rejected the notion of the international force playing a role in disarming groups in Gaza, saying that “resisting the occupation by all means is a legitimate right guaranteed by international laws and conventions”.
- The statement called on the international community and the Security Council to instead adopt resolutions that achieve justice for Gaza ”through the actual cessation of the brutal genocidal war on Gaza, reconstruction, ending the occupation, and enabling our people to self-determination and establish their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital”.
Showing 1 reaction