Israel steadfast on Rafah assault after US-backed ceasefire call vetoed at UN Security Council

The motion, calling for an “immediate” ceasefire in Gaza, was the first time such a text was supported by the US.

LAST UPDATE | 22 Mar 2024

ISRAEL REMAINS STEADFAST on its plans to assault Rafah, in Southern Gaza, where the state believes the last stronghold of Hamas remain as over one million Palestinians are currently seeking refuge in the city.

Despite Israel’s closest ally, the United States (US), firmly denouncing the plans, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet are stilling planning to continue with the plans.

The US backed a call for a ceasefire in a text which was tabled and later vetoed by Russia and China today at the United Nations Security Council meeting in New York. The motion, calling for an “immediate” ceasefire in Gaza, was the first time such a text was supported by the US.

Over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, since Israel begun its assault on Gaza after the 7 October attacks where Hamas killed more than 1,200 and kidnapped hundreds of Israeli citizens.

Washington has repeatedly blocked previous Gaza ceasefire resolutions at the UN Security Council. Many countries backed the renewed diplomatic push to pause the war, but China and Russia vetoed the US text.

French President Emmanuel Macron later said diplomats would keep pushing for a consensus text. Russian ambassador Vasily Nebenzia said the US text would “ensure the impunity of Israel, whose crimes are not even assessed in the draft”.

A spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced he will visit the Egypt-Gaza border city of Rafah on Saturday to reiterate his call for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, after the vote.

Guterres will arrive in Egypt this evening for an annual Ramadan solidarity trip. While there, the secretary-general will meet aid workers on the Egyptian side of Rafah, and visit a hospital in El-Arish, an Egyptian city which sits close to the Gaza border.

240322-united-nations-march-22-2024-xinhua-representatives-vote-on-a-draft-resolution-during-a-un-security-council-meeting-at-the-un-headquarters-in-new-york-on-march-22-2024-a-chinese Representatives vote on a draft resolution during a UN Security Council meeting at the UN headquarters today. Alamy Alamy

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused China and Russia of “cynically” using their vetoes as permanent members of the council, while Hamas expressed its “appreciation”.

Diplomats said a new text, in which Arab governments had a hand, might be put to the vote as early as Saturday but said Washington had indicated it might veto it.

Some Arab governments complained the text was too weak and put no pressure on Israel. Yesterday, leaders of the 27 member states of the European Union called for an immediate humanitarian pause, leading to a sustainable ceasefire in the region.

The European leaders also warned of the risk of famine in Gaza, as some reports suggest Israeli settlers in the region have blocked the provision of much needed aid – reports which were validated and condemned by President Michael D Higgins this month.

While diplomats talked in New York, Israel’s spy chief David Barnea headed to Qatar for truce negotiations with CIA chief William Burns and Qatari and Egyptian officials.

The mediators are aiming to secure the release of Israelis still held by Gaza militants in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody and the delivery of more relief supplies.

Blinken was on a whistlestop tour of the region today to support truce talks in Qatar that involve indirect negotiations between Israeli and Hamas representatives. Blinken, on his sixth tour of the region since the war began, said that the “gaps are narrowing”.

“It’s difficult to get there, but I believe it is still possible,” he said in Cairo.

u-s-secretary-of-state-antony-blinken-disembarks-from-an-aircraft-as-he-arrives-in-tel-aviv-israel-friday-march-22-2024-evelyn-hocksteinpool-photo-via-ap Blinken disembarks from an aircraft as he arrives in Tel Aviv, Israel. Alamy Alamy

Israel also continued to pound the southern city of Rafah and its surroundings, where most of Gaza’s population has taken shelter.

Standing in the ruins of a partly destroyed house in Rafah, resident Nabil Abu Thabet said “innocent civilians” had been pulled out “in pieces”.

“People were targeted at 1.00 am, when they were asleep,” he told AFP.

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Netanyahu said he had told Blinken today that there was “no way to defeat Hamas” without troops entering Rafah, a plan that has provoked international concern for the 1.5 million civilians trapped in the city.

“I told him I hope to do that with the support of the United States, but if we need to, we will do it alone,” Netanyahu said.

The Israeli Prime Minister and his far-right government today announced it was ‘confiscating’ 1,980 acres of land in the occupied West Bank, in a move settlement watchdog Peace Now described as “provocation”.

Successive Israeli governments have sharply accelerated the expansion of settlements across the West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem which are regarded as illegal under international law and one of the major obstacles to Middle East peace.

Peace Now said the land seizure announced on Friday was the biggest since the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accords of the 1990s.

“You know our views on settlement expansion,” Blinken said. “Anyone taking steps that make things more difficult, more challenging with time is something we have a problem with.”