Israel Isolated After UN Security Council Demands Gaza Ceasefire

US abstains but UK and 13 other members call for 'lasting' end to conflict

-  Julian Borger, Lorenzo Tondo

The UN security council voted yesterday to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza for the first time since the start of the Israel-Hamas war after the US dropped a threat to veto, bringing Israel to near total isolation on the world stage.

The US abstained and the 14 other council members all voted in favour of the security council ceasefire resolution put forward by the 10 elected members who voiced their frustration with more than five months of deadlock between the major powers.

The text demanded "an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire" and the release of hostages but did not make a truce dependent on them being freed, as Washington had previously demanded.

The vote signalled a significant break between the Biden administration and the Israeli government, and represented a long-delayed show of international unity on Gaza after more than 32,000 people in the territory have been reported dead, with thousands more missing. UN agencies are warning that a major famine is imminent.

The Palestinian envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour, called it a belated "vote for humanity to prevail", telling the council: "This must be a turning point. This must lead to saving lives on the ground. Apologies to those the world has failed, to those that could have been saved but were not."

Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, alleged the US had "abandoned its policy in the UN" by abstaining, giving hope to Hamas of a truce without giving up its hostages, and therefore "harming both the war effort and the effort to release the hostages".