On November 18, the United Nations Security Council voted to endorse a plan for peace in Gaza proposed by President Donald Trump. The vote passed by a margin of 13 votes to zero, with Russia and China abstaining. The measure was the first concrete peace plan for the region approved by the U.N. since war broke out in October 2022.
Trump publicly unveiled the 20-point plan in September alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who publicly came out in its support. Since the U.N.’s endorsement, however, he has since denounced its outlining of the creation of a Palestinian state, partially due to pressure from his fragile governing coalition’s furthest-right wing.
Among the plan’s tenants are an immediate end to military conflict, the release of hostages, an unrestricted flow of humanitarian aid, the disarming of Hamas, the redevelopment of Gaza, territorial sovereignty for Gaza and a future dialogue between Israel and Palestinians “to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous co-existence.”
Following the announcement of the plan, Hamas agreed to return all remaining Israeli hostages and step down from power in Gaza in return for Palestinian detainees, all of whom were freed by mid-October. Notably, it did not take a position on the other parts of the agreement, including disarmament. It publicly rejected the U.N.’s resolution, saying that it didn’t go far enough to give Palestinians enough self-determination in their own future.
The stability of the ceasefire, too, remains in question. Though it has returned all living hostages, Hamas has only returned the remains of four of the deceased. The Red Cross has stated that it would be a “massive challenge” to locate the remains of all deceased hostages in the Gaza Strip.
Most visibly, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has continued to conduct military strikes in Gaza, with hundreds killed since the announcement of the ceasefire. The IDF has claimed that those it has killed have encroached upon the “yellow line” that signals the boundary of Israel’s withdrawal within Gaza. The bloodiest day thus far has been October 28, which saw attacks kill at least 104 people, at least 66 of whom were women and children. The IDF justified these attacks by saying they were a response to Hamas violating the ceasefire by killing soldiers in Rafah. Hamas has stated that it stopped communicating with units in Rafah several months ago.
The current ceasefire is not the only one that’s attempted to broker peace in Gaza — several others, including one in January of this year, were temporarily instated to allow for aid to flow into the war-ravaged Gaza Strip — though it is the only one without an expiration date. The U.N.’s resolution aids in the legitimacy of Trump’s peace plan, though without full agreement from Hamas and Israel, it will be difficult for it to fully take effect.
The proposal mandates the creation of several international mediary bodies, most notably an International Stabilization Force (ISF), composed of troops from several countries around the world. As long as Hamas and Israel remain uncommitted to the deal, though, it’s unlikely that any peacekeeping force will maintain a presence in the region.
The U.N. endorsing the most successful peace plan for Gaza so far indicates that the international community is willing to begin searching for a more permanent resolution to the conflict. As long as an agreement isn’t reached between Israel, Hamas and all involved parties, however, a complete conclusion the Gaza War will remain in the future, rather than the present.