US calls for vote on Gaza cease-fire proposal at UN Security Council

NEW YORK

The US said Sunday that it has requested a vote at the UN Security Council on a three-stage cease-fire proposal for Gaza.

Nate Evans, the spokesman for the US mission to the UN, announced that they had submitted the request to the Security Council.

The proposal was previously announced by President Joe Biden and prepared by Israel.

"As we have repeatedly emphasized, implementation of this deal would enable an immediate cease-fire, the release of hostages, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from populated areas in its first phase, an immediate surge in humanitarian assistance and restoration of basic services, and the return of Palestinian civilians to northern Gaza, together with a roadmap for ending the crisis altogether and a multi-year internationally backed reconstruction plan," said Evans.

"Israel has accepted this proposal and the Security Council has an opportunity to speak with one voice and call on Hamas to do the same," he stressed.

UN sources indicated that the vote could be placed on the Security Council’s agenda at the beginning of the week.

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

More than 37,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and nearly 84,500 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Alperen Aktas contributed to the story from Istanbul