US urges UN Security Council to pressure Hamas to accept hostage-ceasefire deal

Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief

US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during a UN Security Council Meeting on July 17, 2024, on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, at UN headquarters in New York. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP)
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during a UN Security Council Meeting on July 17, 2024, on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, at UN headquarters in New York. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP)

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield calls on the Security Council to pressure Hamas to accept the ceasefire and hostage release deal being negotiated.

Addressing the top UN panel’s monthly hearing on the conflict, Thomas-Greenfield says Israel and Hamas have agreed on a framework, which was based on the Israeli proposal submitted in May, outlined by US President Joe Biden in a subsequent speech and enshrined in a resolution adopted by the council.

“There are still gaps to be closed, and this council must keep pressure on Hamas to accept the deal outlined in Resolution 2735, and begin implementing it without delay and without conditions. This is what we all want here in this council, it’s what the Palestinians in Gaza want,” she says.

The US envoy notes that improvements have been made in the distribution of humanitarian aid throughout Gaza since a recent breakdown of law and order. However, many requests by the UN and other aid organizations “particularly related to communications equipment vital for deconfliction processes, remain unresolved.”

“We urge the Government of Israel to work with the UN to overcome these and other roadblocks,” Thomas-Greenfield says.

“Palestinian civilians are living in hell. Over and over, they have had to flee from one place to another in search of safety. And so many people have lost parents and siblings, children and friends, including in a recent IDF strike on a UN-supported school in Nuseirat camp,” she continues.

She stresses the administration’s continues concern with settler violence and condemns recent Israeli steps to expand its footprint in the West Bank. “Unilateral actions, like the Government of Israel’s settlement program, are inconsistent with international law and detrimental to a two-state solution.”

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