{"id":19250,"date":"2024-03-22T09:13:15","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T09:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/?p=19250"},"modified":"2024-03-22T09:13:15","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T09:13:15","slug":"us-eu-ratchet-up-pressure-on-israel-over-gaza-ceasefire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/2024\/03\/us-eu-ratchet-up-pressure-on-israel-over-gaza-ceasefire\/","title":{"rendered":"US, EU ratchet up pressure on Israel over Gaza ceasefire"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONITORING (SW) – The United Nations Security Council is expected to vote as soon as Friday on a United States-drafted resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza as the European Union called for a \u201chumanitarian pause\u201d, adding to the pressure on Israel to end its five-month-long bombardment of the Palestinian territory.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Washington, Israel\u2019s staunchest ally, has been gradually hardening its tone following its early solid support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war in Gaza.<\/p>\n

The latest draft resolution marks a further toughening of Washington\u2019s approach amid rising global condemnation of a war in which some 32,000 Palestinians have been killed.<\/p>\n

UN experts have also warned of an imminent famine as a result of Israel\u2019s blockade.<\/p>\n

The draft US text describes an \u201cimmediate and sustained ceasefire\u201d as an imperative to protect civilians and allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid. A ceasefire would also be conditional on the release of some of the remaining captives taken by Hamas in its attack on Israel on October 7.<\/p>\n

Previously, the US has avoided referring to a ceasefire and vetoed UN resolutions that have called for one, most recently in February.<\/p>\n

Announcing the Friday vote, US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas Greenfield, said US diplomats had been working on a resolution that would \u201cunequivocally support ongoing diplomatic efforts aimed at securing an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as part of a deal which would get hostages released and enable a surge in humanitarian aid\u201d.<\/p>\n

There was some discomfort at the language used in the US draft, and a second resolution has also been drafted with stronger language that demands an immediate ceasefire. It has the support of eight of the 10 non-permanent members of the 15-member body.<\/p>\n

The diplomatic moves at the UN came as EU leaders meeting in Brussels called for an \u201cimmediate humanitarian pause leading to a sustainable ceasefire\u201d in Gaza.<\/p>\n

They also called for \u201cthe unconditional release of all hostages\u201d and urged Israel not to proceed with its plan for a major ground offensive in the southernmost city of Rafah where more than one million Palestinians have sought refuge from the war.<\/p>\n

The EU said such an assault would \u201cworsen the already catastrophic humanitarian situation and prevent the urgently needed provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance\u201d.<\/p>\n

The ceasefire calls came as truce negotiations mediated by the US, Qatar and Egypt were set to continue in Doha. A statement from Netanyahu\u2019s office said Israel\u2019s spy chief David Barnea would travel to Qatar on Friday to meet mediators.<\/p>\n

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is on his sixth trip to the region since the conflict began, said he believed there could be a deal between Israel and Hamas, which controls Gaza and killed more than 1,000 people in its October attack on Israel.<\/p>\n

Negotiations in Qatar have centred on a truce of about six weeks that would allow the release of 40 Israeli captives in return for hundreds of Palestinians detained in Israeli jails.<\/p>\n

\u201cNegotiators continue to work. The gaps are narrowing, and we\u2019re continuing to push for an agreement in Doha. There\u2019s still difficult work to get there. But I continue to believe it\u2019s possible,\u201d Blinken said.<\/p>\n

The main obstacle has been that Hamas says it will release captives only as part of a deal that would end the war, while Israel says it will discuss only a temporary pause.<\/p>\n

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA<\/strong><\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONITORING (SW) – The United Nations Security Council is expected to vote as soon as Friday on a United States-drafted resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza as the European Union called for a \u201chumanitarian pause\u201d, adding to the pressure on Israel to end its five-month-long bombardment of the Palestinian territory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":19251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[990,1,984,979,194,982,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-0_swnen","category-news","category-humanitarian-crisis","category-world","category-international","category-headline"],"views":46,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19252,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19250\/revisions\/19252"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}