UNSC passes resolution calling for immediate, but temporary ceasefire in Gaza

...as well as for immediate and unconditional release of all captives. Will Israel and Hamas abide by it?

From The Guardian.

As you have probably read/heard from mainstream media (MSM), after several failed attempts in the past few months, finally the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has just passed a resolution calling for an immediate, though temporary, ceasefire in Gaza, as well as the immediate and unconditional release of all captives. All UNSC members voted for the resolution except for the USA, which abstained, despite the resolution was not condemning Hamas as a terrorist organization (one of the conditions that brought the US to veto previous resolutions) and in spite of threats of Israel to cancel a planned delegation to Washington DC, had the American representative not vetoed the resolution proposed by Mozambique today.

Is this good news? Let’s see…

First of all, as aforementioned, it is a resolution demanding an immediate, BUT temporary ceasefire! According to this resolution, the ceasefire, if implemented by the warring parties, will last until the end of Ramadan, i.e. until Tuesday 9th April 2024, that is barely a couple of weeks. After that, Israel will be able to continue its genocide of Palestinians, unless a new UNSC resolution is passed.
Russia tried to amend the text of the resolution, by changing the wording from “temporary” to “permanent ceasefire”, but unfortunately the USA (who else?) voted against this change.

Secondly, the resolution is also calling for the immediate and unconditional release of all captives. This means that Hamas MUST release all hostages captured on 7th October 2023, but… what happens at the end of this temporary ceasefire? Hamas will have no more leverage and Israel will have free hand on Gaza.

Finally, Israel could ignore the resolution (unlikely, in my humble opinion); however, if that happened, this would be another horrible stain on its reputation and countries could implement sanctions against Israel or even have the resolution respected by use of force.

Will Israel and Hamas comply? We will see.

Surely, this marks a new rift between the Biden administration and Netanyahu, who apparently has just cancelled Israel delegation visit to the USA, following his earlier threat today.

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UPDATE (26/03/2024): I have found out from this tweet on X that yesterday the USA ambassador to the UN stated that the UNSC resolution that was passed on the same day is non-binding, though all UNSC resolution are binding by definition. Moreover, as reported by Reuters, she also had the audacity to link the ceasefire to the release of the first hostage by Hamas, though there is no mention of this in the resolution. This is what she said:

We believe it was important for the council to speak out and make clear that any ceasefire must come with the release of all hostages. A ceasefire can begin immediately with the release of the first hostage and so we must put pressure on Hamas to do just that."

Taking all this into consideration, as well as the following statement by Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, as reported by Anadolu Agency:

The State of Israel will not cease fire. We will destroy Hamas, and will continue to fight until the return of all hostages to home,

…I have to backtrack from my previous optimism and say that unfortunately Israel will ignore the binding resolution approved yesterday by the UNSC, as it ignored all previous resolutions from UNSC (binding) and UNGA (not binding). However, hopefully some countries will start putting more pressure on Israel. For instance, as reported by the Jerusalem Post, Colombian President Gustavo Petro has announced earlier today that If Israel does not comply with the UNSC ceasefire resolution in Gaza, he will break diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv.

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