"Day of Shame”: World Reacts to UN Approval of US-Sponsored Gaza Resolution - Quds News Network
GAZA—On Monday, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) voted to adopt a US-drafted resolution endorsing President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan and authorizing an international stabilization force for the Palestinian enclave, a move a former UN official called a “day of shame,” and which Palestinians said “strips them of their right to manage their own affairs.”
The UNSC approved the US-sponsored resolution on Gaza, with 13 votes in favor. Russia and China abstained.
The resolution advances the second phase of Trump’s Gaza plan. It calls for a multinational force and outlines a path toward Palestinian statehood, but provides no timeline or guarantees.
Palestinian factions had warned against the plan. In a Sunday statement, they said the resolution threatens Palestinian national authority. The draft, they added, “shifts Gaza’s administration and reconstruction to an international body with broad powers, stripping Palestinians of their right to manage their own affairs.”
Israeli media reported that the multinational force would operate alongside Israel and Egypt. The plan also envisions a Palestinian police force in Gaza, trained and tested to secure borders.
Factions emphasized that all humanitarian efforts must be led by Palestinian institutions under UN supervision. They warned that aid could become a political tool, used to pressure Palestinians and reshape Gaza under foreign control. The plan sidesteps UNRWA’s role in Gaza reconstruction.
The draft also calls for an international fund, managed by donor countries, to rebuild Gaza. It does not mention a role for UNRWA, which Palestinian factions say must remain as an international witness to refugee rights.
Factions strongly rejected any clauses related to disarming Gaza or limiting Palestinian resistance. They insisted that weapons issues remain a national matter linked to ending occupation, establishing a Palestinian state, and achieving self-determination.
Analysts say the plan effectively legitimizes US oversight. The International Stability Force and the proposed Peace Council will operate under US authority. The Security Council will only receive biannual reports. The draft ties Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza to security stability, keeping the Israeli army as a regional security actor.
The resolution poses serious risks:
- Gaza could remain under international oversight for years.
- Palestinian resistance could be disarmed.
- The Palestinian Authority could return under external conditions.
- Palestinian statehood could be delayed indefinitely.
Eight Arab and Islamic states publicly supported the resolution, calling it a step toward Palestinian self-determination.
The resolution comes after two years of Israeli genocide that killed over 69,000 Palestinians, injured more than 170,000, and destroyed 90% of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure.
“The resolution imposes an international guardianship mechanism on the Gaza Strip, which our people and their factions reject,” Hamas said in its statement, issued after the adoption of the resolution.
Hamas said that assigning an international force to disarm groups fighting Israeli occupation in Gaza “strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favour of the occupation”.
It said that any international force “must be deployed only at the borders to separate forces, monitor the ceasefire, and must be fully under UN supervision”, adding that such a force should operate “exclusively in coordination with official Palestinian institutions”.
It rejected the notion of the international force playing a role in disarming groups in Gaza, saying that “resisting the occupation by all means is a legitimate right guaranteed by international laws and conventions”.
The statement called on the international community and the Security Council to instead adopt resolutions that achieve justice for Gaza ”through the actual cessation of the brutal genocidal war on Gaza, reconstruction, ending the occupation, and enabling our people to self-determination and establish their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital”.
Craig Mokhiber, a former senior UN human rights official, has described today’s vote as a “day of shame for the United Nations”.
“Not a single member of the Council had the courage, principle, or respect for international law to vote against this US-Israel colonial outrage,” Mokhiber said in a post on X.
Mokhiber, who was the former director of the New York Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and left his post in 2023 in protest over the UN’s failure to prevent Israel’s genocide in Gaza, added, “This proposal has been rejected by Palestinian civil society and factions, and defenders of human rights and international law everywhere,” noting the “struggle for Palestinian freedom will continue”.
Russia and China abstained from the vote, expressing concern over Palestinian participation and the lack of a clear role for the UN in the future of Gaza.
Human rights group Al-Haq also warned that the resolution undermines Palestinians’ right to self-determination and that it authorises the US to establish itself as an occupying power.
Photo: Children raise Palestinian flag over the rubble of homes in Gaza. Source: Quds News Network.
