Displaced Palestinians stand next to tents west of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. The UN resolution calls for the resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries, at scale / © AFP
Israel on Tuesday hailed Donald Trump's Gaza peace plan after its endorsement by the UN Security Council, as Hamas rejected the resolution which calls for the deployment of an international force in the Palestinian territory.
The United Nations Security Council voted on Monday in favour of a US-drafted resolution bolstering President Trump's plan for the Gaza Strip -- which has allowed a fragile ceasefire to hold between Israel and Hamas since October 10.
The peace plan notably authorises the creation of an international force that would work with Israel and Egypt and newly-trained Palestinian police to help secure border areas and demilitarise Gaza.
Following the vote, Gazans embraced a chance for life to improve, but had little faith that Israel would comply with the resolution.
"Any international decision that benefits the Palestinians now is welcome. The important thing is that the war ends," said 39-year-old Saeb Al-Hassanat, who lives in a school sheltering displaced people in central Gaza.
"It doesn't matter who rules us. We welcome international administration of Gaza," he told AFP, but added that "without strong pressure from the US, Israel will not comply with any decision, and the Security Council resolution will remain worthless."
The Gaza Strip has been largely reduced to rubble after two years of fighting / © AFP
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office hailed Trump's plan on Tuesday, saying it would lead to "peace and prosperity because it insists upon full demilitarisation, disarmament and the deradicalisation of Gaza".
On X, Netanyahu's office said the plan would also lead to an expansion of the Abraham Accords, under which a few Arab countries have normalised ties with Israel.
There were 13 votes in favour of the resolution and none against, with Russia and China both abstaining but not deploying their veto as permanent members.
- 'Conditions are catastrophic' -
The Gaza Strip has been largely reduced to rubble after two years of fighting, sparked by Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
There were 13 votes in favour of the text, with Russia and China abstaining / © AFP
Rawia Abbas, who lives in a partially destroyed house in Gaza City's Zeitun neighbourhood, said conditions in the territory remained dire despite the ceasefire.
"We still have no food, no water and no homes. Winter has begun and people's conditions are catastrophic. My young children stand in line for hours to get a gallon of water and a coupon for some food," the 40-year-old told AFP.
Hamas, which is excluded by the resolution from any governance role in Gaza, said it did not meet Palestinians' "political and humanitarian demands and rights".
In a statement, the Islamist militant group decried the establishment of an international force and said the resolution imposes "an international trusteeship on the Gaza Strip, which our people, its forces, and its constituent groups reject".
A Palestinian woman fixes her makeshift shelter at a displacement camp in Gaza City / © AFP
The peace plan authorises the creation of an International Stabilisation Force that is mandated to work on the "permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups", protecting civilians and securing humanitarian aid corridors.
It also authorises the formation of a "Board of Peace", a transitional governing body for Gaza -- which Trump would theoretically chair -- with a mandate running until the end of 2027.
The resolution also calls for the resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries at scale through the UN, the Red Cross and the Red Crescent.
- 'Soft occupation' -
"The UN Security Council's resolution is something that gives me a lot of hope," Israeli entrepreneur Ron Poole-Dayen told AFP in Tel Aviv.
"It is vital that we have as many forces reinforcing the little bit of common interest and will that has been displayed in the ceasefire agreement to increase the chances that we will go through to more long-lasting arrangements and hopefully for peace, eventually."
But Ahmad Al-Kabariti, a Gaza City resident, told AFP he thought the "unjust resolution will undermine the rights of the Palestinian people" and amounted to "a soft occupation" in the territory.
People use brooms to sweep a road in the Gaza Strip / © AFP
The European Union's foreign affairs spokesman, Anouar El Anouni, hailed Monday's vote as "an important step" in ending the Gaza conflict, enabling scaled-up aid access and reconstructing the war-battered territory.
On X, the Palestinian foreign ministry, based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said the vote affirmed the Palestinian people's "right to self-determination and the establishment of their independent state," stressing the need for immediate implementation.
In convoluted language, the resolution does mention a possible pathway to a future Palestinian state once the Palestinian Authority completes reforms -- but it is something firmly and repeatedly rejected by Israel.
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