Tel Aviv/New York, 11 June 2024 (dpa/MIA) - The UN Security Council has supported a multi-stage plan presented by US President Joe Biden for a ceasefire in the Gaza war after adopting a corresponding resolution in New York on Monday.

Fourteen member states voted in favour of the draft, while Russia, one of the veto powers, abstained.

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said afterwards that the UN's most powerful body had voted for peace.

The paper supports a plan presented by Biden that envisages an end to the fighting in the Gaza Strip in three phases.

According to the US, only the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement has not yet agreed to the plan. However, the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not yet given its clear and public approval to the plan either.

The Security Council resolution, which is binding under international law, declares that Israel has accepted the plan and calls on Hamas to do the same and urges all parties involved to implement the plan without delay and without conditions.

It was the 11th time since the beginning of the war in Gaza that the UN Security Council has voted on a resolution on the conflict. Only four proposed resolutions were adopted.

Hamas welcomed the Security Council resolution, it said in a statement.

"Hamas welcomes what is included in the Security Council resolution that affirmed the permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the complete withdrawal, the prisoners' exchange, the reconstruction, the return of the displaced to their areas of residence, the rejection of any demographic change or reduction in the area of the Gaza Strip, and the delivery of needed aid to our people in the Strip."

Hamas was willing to engage in indirect negotiations over implementing the principles "that are consistent with the demands of our people and resistance," the statement added.

The ambitious draft deal presented by Biden at the end of May initially provides for a complete and unrestricted ceasefire of six weeks. During this period, a certain group of hostages would be released. In return, Palestinians imprisoned in Israel would be released.

In the next phase, the fighting would then cease permanently and the remaining hostages would be released.

According to the draft, the final phase would see the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip begin.

Photo: EPA