The United Nations Security Council will vote later on Monday on a US-drafted resolution backing a proposal outlined by President Joe Biden for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Reuters reports.
The US finalised its text on Sunday after six days of negotiations among the 15-member Council. It was not immediately clear whether veto powers, Russia and China, would allow the adoption of the draft.
A resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by the US, France, Britain, China or Russia to pass.
Biden laid out a three-phase ceasefire plan on 31 May that he described as an Israeli initiative. Some Security Council members questioned whether Israel had accepted the plan to end the fighting in Gaza.
The draft resolution welcomes the new ceasefire proposal, “which Israel accepted, calls upon Hamas to also accept it, and urges both parties to fully implement its terms without delay and without condition”.
It also goes into detail about the proposal, and spells out that “if the negotiations take longer than six weeks for phase one, the ceasefire will still continue as long as negotiations continue”.
The Council, in March, demanded for an immediate ceasefire and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas.
For months, negotiators from the US, Egypt and Qatar have been trying to mediate a ceasefire. Hamas says it wants a permanent end to the war in the Gaza Strip and Israeli withdrawal from the enclave of 2.3 million people.
Israel is retaliating against Hamas, which rules Gaza, over a 7 October attack by its fighters.
More than 1,200 people were killed and over 250 taken hostage by Hamas on 7 October, according to Israeli tallies. More than 100 hostages are believed to remain captive in Gaza.
However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.
Israel launched an air, ground and sea assault on the Palestinian Territory, killing more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
READ: Blinken urges Middle East leaders to press Hamas for Gaza ceasefire