President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan faces a crucial vote at the United Nations on Monday, as world powers are still divided over whether he can turn a fragile ceasefire into a long-term solution that has eluded the Middle East.
Much of the plan remains uncertain, with occasional outbreaks of violence between Israel and Hamas threatening this fragile diplomacy at every turn, and Palestinians inside Gaza suffering from hunger and now flooding at the onset of a harsh winter.
The difficult road ahead was made clear even before delegates took their desks, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – under pressure from his far-right coalition partners – denounced that the resolution outlined a future Palestinian state. Hamas also warned against the US proposal.
The 15-member UN Security Council will vote at 5 pm ET on the draft resolution of Trump’s plan. Nine votes are needed to pass, but China or Russia could veto it directly.
Designed to lift Gaza out of a rubble-strewn war zone into a new era, the resolution backs the establishment of a “Peace Board,” headed by the president himself, to temporarily govern the territory. On top of that, an International Stabilization Force, known as an ISF, would assume responsibility for the Israel Defense Forces currently occupying parts of the Gaza Strip.
“I’m optimistic that we will see the resolution passed,” Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, told NBC News in an interview on Sunday. “I think we are on the verge of a historic realignment in the Middle East because President Trump has done things that I don’t think anyone else could have accomplished to bring these countries together.”
The proposal would represent “phase two” of Trump’s 20-point plan first announced in September, whose “phase one” brought an exchange of prisoners and hostages as well as a ceasefire that has largely held despite accusations of violations from both sides.
At least 69,000 people have been killed in Gaza by Israel’s military offensive, most of them women and children, according to local health officials. Israel launched this after the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack in which 1,200 people were killed and another 250 kidnapped.
Some members of the Security Council objected that the US resolution made no reference to Palestinian statehood, according to The Associated Press. The draft now says that after the Palestinian Authority has “faithfully complied and the redevelopment of Gaza has moved forward, the conditions may be in place for a credible path toward self-determination and the creation of a Palestinian state,” the AP reported.
The resolution supporting the US plan is supported by Arab states including Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, as well as Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan. Of them, the only ones that are on the Security Council are the United States and Pakistan, a non-permanent member, which therefore does not have the right of veto.
A joint statement from the United States and its supporters said the “process offers a path to self-determination and the creation of a Palestinian state” and “provides a viable path to peace and stability, not only between Israelis and Palestinians, but for the entire region.”
Huckabee praised Trump for “bringing together Arab leaders and getting them all to sign the historic agreement.” Regarding the Palestinian state, he warned that “the resolution does not demand the state, but it does say that it lays the foundation, as long as there are reforms that have been requested for a long time.”
Still, the open door to a Palestinian state within the resolution has infuriated the Israeli far right, whose top politicians are propping up Netanyahu’s government. Under pressure from them, Netanyahu came out on Sunday to say that “our opposition to a Palestinian state in any territory has not changed.”
He told a meeting: “Gaza will be demobilized and Hamas will be disarmed, the easy way or the hard way. I don’t need reinforcements, or tweets or sermons from anyone.”
The Hamas-led Palestinian Resistance Factions called the plan an “attempt to impose another form of occupation on our land and our people” and called it “a violation of our national sovereignty and a continuation of the suffering of our people.”
As permanent members of the Security Council, China and Russia could veto the plan or abstain. If they opt out, the United States must find nine votes elsewhere, either from the other founding members, France and the United Kingdom, or from the 10 rotating non-permanent members: Algeria, Denmark, Greece, Guyana, Pakistan, Panama, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Somalia and South Korea.
A defeat would deprive Trump’s proposal of crucial international acceptance, plunging the process into greater uncertainty.
Meanwhile, Moscow’s delegation has presented its own proposal, which contains stronger language supporting the creation of a Palestinian state.
In a Monday call between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi “they emphasized the importance of achieving a lasting peace based on a universally recognized international legal basis,” according to a Russian reading of the conversation.
