UN endorses U.S.-sponsored truce resolution to end war

Security Council's support for plan puts added pressure on Israel, militants

- EDITH M. LEDERER

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, shown Monday in Cairo, urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the plan for postwar Gaza as he pushed for more international pressure on Hamas to agree to the ceasefire proposal.

The UN Security Council on Monday overwhelmingly approved its first resolution endorsing a ceasefire plan aimed at ending the eight-month war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

The U.S.-sponsored resolution welcomes a ceasefire proposal announced by President Joe Biden that the United States says Israel has accepted. It calls on the militant Palestinian group Hamas to accept the three-phase plan.

The resolution - which was approved with 14 of the 15 Security Council members voting in favour and Russia abstaining calls on Israel and Hamas "to fully implement its terms without delay and without condition."