On Sunday, an Israeli attack set a camp on fire, killing at least 45 displaced Palestinians, including children. Israeli military operations.
But they must overcome opposition from the United States, which holds a veto on the Security Council and has said it will not support the resolution in its current form.
Algeria, currently the only Arab representative on the council, drafted and circulated the one-page resolution, which said “Israel, the occupying Power, should immediately cease its military attacks and any other actions in Rafah”. It called for “an immediate ceasefire on all sides and demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages”.
The Security Council held back-to-back meetings on the Gaza war on Tuesday and Wednesday, starting with a closed-door emergency meeting on the Rafah camp attack and then its monthly public meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Algeria’s resolution is expected to be voted on in the coming days.
“The human toll is self-evident and shocking,” Algerian Ambassador Amal Benjama told the Security Council on Wednesday. “The crimes speak for themselves.”
A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said the United States would block the current version of the resolution because it viewed it as unbalanced and problematic. He said that the United States has proposed a number of amendments.
In particular, the official said the United States did not want to approve a resolution calling for a complete halt to Israel’s military assault on Rafah, which Israeli commanders insist remains a stronghold of the armed group Hamas. The Biden administration supports limited Israeli operations there.
As one of the five permanent members of the Security Council, the United States has veto power, which it has used on three previous ceasefire resolutions since the war broke out in October. In March, the United States adopted a resolution without abstention calling for a humanitarian ceasefire during Ramadan.
In recent weeks, as civilian casualties in Gaza have mounted, U.S. officials have become more vocal in criticizing Israel’s conduct of the war. At least 36,000 people have been killed in Israeli bombings and ground operations, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians in its tally. Health officials said most of the victims were women, children and other non-combatants.
Gaza authorities said Sunday’s strike and its violent aftermath killed at least 45 people and that fires swept through Kuwait’s Salaam refugee camp, where displaced people live in tents. A video confirmed by The New York Times showed a burned, headless toddler among the casualties.
“The serious civilian harm caused by incidents such as Sunday’s airstrikes continues to undermine Israel’s strategic objectives in Gaza,” Robert A. Wood, the deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the Security Council on Wednesday. Mr Wood added that Israel had the right to defend itself but also had an “obligation to protect civilians”.
On Tuesday, senior Biden administration officials expressed fear about Sunday’s attack but said it was not part of a major ground operation and therefore did not cross President Biden’s red line for withholding arms shipments to Israel.
The Algerian resolution also cited Friday’s emergency ruling by the United Nations’ top court, the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The ruling ordered Israel to immediately cease military operations in Rafah, although Israeli officials argued that its wording left some room for interpretation. The ruling followed an objection from South Africa, which filed a case accusing Israel of genocide in court late last year.
Several Security Council diplomats said they hoped to vote on the resolution as soon as possible to capture the momentum and anger generated by Sunday night’s attack and to prevent as much as possible the harm to more civilians in Gaza. Diplomats said protracted negotiations aimed at appeasing the United States would send the wrong signal about the Security Council’s determination to act.
French Ambassador Nicolas de Rivière said: “The Security Council must urgently express its opinion on the situation in Rafah and demand that this offensive be stopped.”
