The American delegation to the United Nations has been circulating a revised draft resolution ahead of a scheduled vote in the Security Council on a comprehensive ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip.
The proposal calls on Hamas to accept the framework proposed by President Joe Biden in his speech in late May, noting that Israel has already agreed to it. A previous draft used slightly different wording, stating that the proposal was "acceptable to Israel" alone.
The resolution outlines the details of the framework, according to the stages described by Biden. However, the new draft contains two fundamental changes compared to the previous version, in addition to explicitly stating Israel's consent.
Firstly, the proposal now explicitly states that if the parties do not reach an agreement in the first six weeks, they will continue the ceasefire as long as the negotiations continue. Secondly, it modifies the reference to a potential buffer zone in Gaza. While the previous draft explicitly rejected any attempt to establish a buffer zone, officially or unofficially, as well as any attempt to change the area of the strip or its demographics, the new wording states opposition to any attempt to change Gaza's demographics or reduce its territory.
The changes were implemented after Israel expressed opposition to the previous wording, which was published on Thursday.
