The multinational contingent will have the mandate to oversee the demilitarization of the Palestinian enclave
The UN Security Council has adopted a US-drafted resolution endorsing a Gaza peace plan and authorizing an “international stabilization force” in the enclave. Russia, along with China, abstained, arguing that the document contains numerous practical caveats and could undermine the concept of the two-state solution.
The 15-member council voted on Monday to approve the US text, which endorses US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the Gaza War and legitimizes the so-called Board of Peace (BoP), which is designed to operate as a transitional governance body.
The resolution also supports a multinational International Stabilization Force (ISF) to be established under BoP’s command. The ISF is expected to include contingents from Arab countries and beyond to help provide security, train a new Palestinian police force, and oversee the demilitarization and redevelopment in Gaza.
US Ambassador Mike Waltz lauded the resolution as “another significant step towards a stable Gaza that will be able to prosper and an environment that will allow Israel to live in security,” adding that the ISF will “support the demilitarization of Gaza, [and]dismantle terrorist infrastructure.”
Russia, which could have vetoed the resolution, ultimately refrained from doing so, although Vassily Nebenzia, Moscow’s ambassador to the UN, criticized the document as “yet another pig in a poke.”
“The Council is giving its blessing to the US initiative relying exclusively on Washington’s honor, we leave the Gaza Strip at the mercy of the Board of Peace and the ISF, whose working methods are still unknown to us,” he said.
Nebenzia went on to urge UN members to make sure that the document “does not become a smokescreen for unbridled experiments by the US and Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory nor turn into a death sentence for the two-state solution”.
Still, he explained that Russia had set aside its own draft after taking note that many Arab states supported the American resolution.
At the same time, Hamas, which remains in control in Gaza, denounced the resolution, arguing the ISF’s mandate to disarm militant groups in the enclave “strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favor of the occupation.”
