Herzog lauds UN’s Gaza resolution as a ‘historic diplomatic achievement’

President Isaac Herzog hails the UN Security Council’s approval of a US-sponsored resolution to establish an International Stabilization Force in Gaza under US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan, calling it a “historic diplomatic achievement” that must advance progress toward “the day after” in Gaza and the wider region.

“I welcome last night’s UN Security Council decision, which supports and backs [Trump’s] plan,” Herzog says, speaking at a state memorial ceremony in the Har Herzl military cemetery for soldiers who fell in Israel’s 1956 Sinai Campaign. “This is a historic diplomatic achievement by President Trump — an achievement that can and must lead us toward ‘the day after’ — in Gaza and in the entire region,” he continues.

“This step — now backed by a Security Council resolution — has already significantly advanced the return of the hostages, and it must continue with the dismantling of Hamas’s weapons and the removal of the organization from any position of governing power,” Herzog says.

“A historic and sensitive time such as this requires responsibility and restraint,” the president adds, before condemning a group of Jewish extremists who clashed with police and attacked a West Bank Palestinian village last night.

“The violent riots in Judea and Samaria harm the rule of law and undermine our values as a people and as a state,” he says, using the biblical term for the West Bank. “The law must be enforced against lawbreakers with full severity and full determination.”

In separate remarks to a German delegation visiting Israel, Herzog says that the resolution’s passing “could only have been carved out by President Trump,” adding that he hopes “that Europe will move away from its old assumptions and the blame game against Israel, and say clearly to the Palestinian leadership and nation to reform, stop paying terrorists, and stop encouraging the rhetoric that encourages terrorists.

“There has to be much more intensive dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians,” he continues, saying, “We have to enable a future of hope, and I hope this resolution of the Security Council, plus people-to-people activities and new initiatives, should lead, hopefully, to some sort of a positive outcome.”