The United Nations Security Council Should Stop the War in Gaza Now

On December 11, 2024, following the successful cease-fire that has entered into force on November 27, 2024, between Israel and Lebanon, I wrote a blog at The Times of Israel asking for an urgent intervention by the United Nations Security Council, with the consensus of the five permanent members, to end the war in Gaza. That blog seems to be even more urgent and relevant nowadays.

On January 19, 2025, on the eve of the inauguration of President Trump, an agreement on a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas was eventually reached, with the active involvement of the Biden and incoming Trump US Administrations. The cease-fire agreement led to the release of 33 live hostages over seven weeks, a massive influx of humanitarian assistance, the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, and a respite for the 2 million civilians entrapped in Gaza, between the cruelty of Hamas, and the brutality of the Israeli actions. And yet, the Israeli government decided unilaterally not to withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor, in early March it completely sealed the borders with the Gaza Strip and on March 18^th, it returned to active fighting in the Gaza Strip, violating the agreement it has signed. The combination of intensive military actions and increasing starvation has led to a massive humanitarian crisis and widespread killing of civilians. Only one additional hostage (Edan Alexander) was released since late February, due to the direct negotiations between the United States and Hamas.

In the aftermath of President’s Trump’s important visit to the Middle East, Israel escalated its aerial attacks on the Gaza Strip, and in the last few days it has re-occupied several areas, leading to a massive forcible transfer of about 1 million Palestinians to a tiny area of the Strip. Hundreds of Palestinians, the vast majority of them women and children, have been killed. It is evident that nowadays Israel is committing crimes of war (forcible transfer of population, starvation, attacking civilians, inhuman treaty, and destruction of property). It is actually playing into the hands of Hamas, whereas the futile and tragic continuation of the war will lead to the death of many Israeli hostages, Israeli soldiers, and hundreds and thousands of innocent Palestinian residents of Gaza, mostly women and children. The continuation of the war is bringing more tragedy and misery to both peoples, and that has to stop now. Hamas obviously does not care about the fate of its own people in Gaza. The de-humanization of the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza has caused a tremendous damage to the Israeli soul, status, and identity. That can also be considered as a Hamas victory over Israel’s soft power, unless the war stops now and Israel returns to its senses.

Hence, President Trump, following his important address in Riyadh on May 13, 2025 regarding peace and prosperity, together with the four other permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (i.e., France, Russia, China, and the United Kingdom), and in coordination with the EU and the members of the regional Middle East Quartet (Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE) should act now. They all together should immediately convene the United Nations Security Council to pass a Resolution under Chapter 7 (Article 39), regarding the existence of a threat to peace and breach of the peace, due to the continuation of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Since the negotiations between Israel and Hamas have not come to fruition due to the intransigence of both parties, the UNSC should impose an immediate cease-fire and end of hostilities, even against the volition of both Israel and Hamas.

The UNSC Resolution will incorporate the contents of Resolution 2735 of June 10, 2024. The resolution will call for the immediate release of all the Israeli hostages as a pre-condition for any permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. This will take place in tandem with the release of Palestinian security prisoners, the gradual and eventually complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, in a timetable to be coordinated with the PA and a temporary transitional UN authority to be established in the Gaza Strip. This will lead to the formal end of the war and the disarmament and dismantlement of any remaining Hamas military forces in the Gaza Strip by an international peacekeeping force. The Resolution has to be endorsed by the Palestinian Authority, authorizing the deployment of a civil UN transitional authority and a technocratic, non-political interim Palestinian government, supported by international peacekeeping forces. The future civilian government of Gaza will be coordinated with the deployment of an international peacekeeping force in Gaza, including US forces, to replace the IDF and Hamas and to fill in for the governance vacuum and the current anarchy reigning in the Gaza Strip. The civilian authority will immediate alleviate and improve the humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip, and will lead the process of massive humanitarian aid and reconstruction in the area. Hamas will not be allowed to be part of any governing structure in the Gaza Strip after the war (unless it renounces its ideological credo, recognizes Israel, and becomes a political party). Its remaining military capabilities should be dismantled, leading to the complete demilitarization of the Gaza Strip. Hamas’ remaining leadership should leave the Gaza Strip, in a similar procedure to that of the PLO forces that left Beirut on August 30,1982, for Tunisia.

There are precedents for this type of Resolution: 338 (October 22, 1973,) which ended the Yom Kippur War); Resolution 1272 (1999), which created a UN Transitional Administration in East Timor; and Resolution 1031 (December 15, 1995), regarding Former Yugoslavia, following the Dayton Agreement, which imposed peace upon the warring parties (Serbs, Bosnians, and Croatians).

We can assume that the recalcitrant parties – Israel and Hamas – will be compelled to accept the implementation of the Resolution, due to their reluctance to end the war. Israel is a member-state of the United Nations, and it completely depends upon the political support and economic relations with the United States and the European countries. We can also infer that the United States, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt can compel Hamas to accept the Resolution as well, even though it is a non-state actor not subservient to the rules of the United Nations (though the ‘State of Palestine’ in principle is). Hence, it is up to the prominent members of the international community, first and foremost President Trump, to impose an end to the war in the Gaza Strip, now. President Trump has declared and demonstrated that he prefers peace and prosperity to chaos and wars. An end to the war following his personal initiative might qualify him as a proper candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize, especially if a renewed Israeli Palestinian peace process unfolds after the war.

It is time to act now, and to end the tragedy of the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, hijacked by their infamous current leaderships in both Gaza and Jerusalem. In the aftermath of the war, and as a consequence, Israel and the PLO should engage in renewed political negotiations to resolve the Israeli Palestinian conflict, by peaceful means, ultimately leading to the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state alongside Israel (not instead of it), and peace and normalization between Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the rest of the Arab League countries. That would be the ultimate victory over Hamas, who launched its genocidal attack on October 7, 2023, precisely to derail the chances of peace in the region. But to get there, in the long term, the first step should be to end the war and return the hostages, now.