The UN Security Council has endorsed a US-drafted resolution supporting Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza, which calls for the establishment of an International Stabilization Force (ISF).
The resolution, which was adopted by the 15-member council, outlines a plan for demilitarization and the creation of a transitional governance body known as the Board of Peace (BOP). Russia and China, which had initially opposed the resolution, chose to abstain, expressing concerns about its practicality and its potential impact on the two-state solution. The ISF, which would include contingents from Arab countries and other nations, aims to provide security, train a new Palestinian police force, and oversee the demilitarization and redevelopment of Gaza, as per the resolution’s provisions.
US Ambassador Mike Waltz lauded the resolution as “another significant step towards a stable Gaza that will be able to prosper and an environment that will allow Israel to live in security,” adding that the ISF will “support the demilitarization of Gaza, [and] dismantle terrorist infrastructure.”
Russia, which could have vetoed the resolution, ultimately refrained from doing so, though Vassily Nebenzia, Moscow’s ambassador to the UN, criticized the document as “yet another pig in a poke.”
“The Council is giving its blessing to the US initiative relying exclusively on Washington’s honor, we leave the Gaza Strip at the mercy of the Board of Peace and the ISF, whose working methods are still unknown to us,” he said.
Nebenzia went on to urge UN members to make sure that the document “does not become a smokescreen for unbridled experiments by the US and Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory nor turn into a death sentence for the two-state solution.”
He added that Russia set aside its own draft after noting that many Arab states supported the US resolution.
Hamas, which remains in control in Gaza, denounced the resolution, arguing that the ISF’s mandate to disarm militant groups in the enclave “strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favor of the occupation.”