The Middle East, including the Palestinian Question: Briefing and Consultations
Tomorrow morning (21 March), the Security Council will hold an open briefing, followed by closed consultations, on “The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question” (MEPQ). Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process ad interim Sigrid Kaag will deliver the quarterly update on the implementation of resolution 2334 of 23 December 2016. This resolution demanded that Israel cease all settlement activity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including East Jerusalem, and called for immediate steps to prevent violence against civilians, including acts of terror.
Tomorrow’s meeting comes amid significant and rapidly evolving developments in the Israel-Hamas war. On the night between Monday (17 March) and Tuesday (18 March), Israel resumed large-scale military operations in Gaza for the first time since the first phase of the ceasefire between the parties went into effect on 19 January. According to an 18 March update from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) citing data from the Ministry of Health in Gaza, the initial airstrikes launched by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killed over 400 people, including more than 170 children and 80 women. The airstrikes have continued through the week, reportedly killing dozens more. Yesterday (19 March), the IDF also announced “targeted ground activities” to reassert control over parts of the Netzarim corridor, which separates northern and southern Gaza. Hamas has urged a return to the ceasefire and said that talks to halt the offensive are ongoing with Egyptian, Qatari, and US mediators. The group responded militarily today (20 March), however, launching three rockets towards Tel Aviv. One projectile was intercepted by Israeli air defences and the other two landed in “an open area”.
UN staff have been among the casualties of the hostilities. Yesterday, one staff member from the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) was killed and five others wounded when two UN guesthouses in central Gaza were “hit by an explosion”, according to Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Farhan Haq. In a statement posted today on social media, UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that five UNWRA staff members have also been killed this week, bringing the total death toll for Agency staff during the conflict to 284.
Israeli officials have described the renewed military activity as a response to Hamas’ rejection of US proposals to extend the first phase of the ceasefire, which expired on 1 March. On 2 March, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endorsed a proposed “framework” for a “temporary ceasefire for the Ramadan and Passover period”, which he attributed to US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff. Under this plan—which proposed different terms than the initial ceasefire agreement that the parties had agreed to in January—Hamas would release half of the 59 hostages it is still holding on the first day that the framework goes into effect and the remaining hostages on the last day, with the parties negotiating a permanent ceasefire in the interim. In the same statement, Netanyahu said that Hamas had rejected the proposal, and that Israel would therefore prevent the entry of humanitarian aid and commercial supplies into the Gaza Strip, adding that there would be “additional consequences” if Hamas did not change its position. (For more information, see our 17 March What’s in Blue story.)
Hamas reportedly described the US-proposed framework as a violation of the original ceasefire agreement and characterised Israel’s decision to block humanitarian aid as “blackmail” and a “war crime”. According to media reports, the group subsequently rejected a modified US proposal to release 14 hostages—five living and nine deceased—in exchange for an extension of the first phase of the ceasefire and the resumption of aid. Instead, the group apparently offered to release the five remaining hostages with dual Israeli-American citizenship—one living and four deceased—as an interim step towards the second phase of the ceasefire, which would establish a permanent cessation of hostilities. Both Israel and the US rejected that proposal. In a 17 March statement announcing the resumption of Israel’s military activity, Netanyahu said that he had ordered the IDF to “take strong action” against Hamas following the group’s “repeated refusal” to release the hostages, as well as its rejection of “all of the proposals” from the US. He added that Israel “will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength”.
At a Security Council briefing on the humanitarian situation in Gaza held on Tuesday, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher expressed alarm at the renewal of hostilities and the large number of reported casualties. He called for an extension of the ceasefire, as well as for the resumption of humanitarian aid into Gaza, supported by adequate funding. Similarly, in a statement issued the same day, Secretary-General António Guterres expressed his shock at the airstrikes, which killed “a meaningful number of civilians”. He further called for the ceasefire to be respected, for unimpeded humanitarian assistance to be reestablished, and for the remaining hostages to be released unconditionally. In another statement issued yesterday, Guterres said that he was “deeply saddened and shocked” to learn of the death and injuries of the UNOPS staff, noting that the locations of all UN premises are known to the conflict parties, “who are bound by international law to protect them and maintain their absolute inviolability”. The statement also condemned all attacks on UN personnel and called for a full investigation into the incident. Kaag may reiterate these messages at tomorrow’s meeting.
Kaag is also expected to update Council members on the situation in the West Bank, where Israel has been conducting what it has described as a large-scale counterterrorism operation since 21 January. According to OCHA, the operation—which is the longest conducted by Israel in the West Bank since the early 2000s—has displaced “tens of thousands of people” from refugee camps in the northern part of the territory and has coincided with a rise in settler violence and in the demolition of Palestinian structures.
More broadly, a report dated 6 March from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, covering developments from 1 November 2023 to 31 October 2024, details “significant consolidation and expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem”, as the Israeli government has continued to transfer its own population into the territory and demolish Palestinian homes. According to the report, steps have been taken to implement plans to construct over 20,000 housing units in new or existing Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem alone, while 214 Palestinian properties and structures have been demolished there. Over 10,300 units within existing Israeli settlements in the rest of the West Bank are in the pipeline, and an “unprecedented” 49 new Israeli outposts have been established. Additionally, the report describes “a climate of revenge” across the West Bank, where Israeli security forces and settlers killed a total of 612 Palestinians during the reporting period. Additionally, 24 Israelis were killed in alleged attacks or clashes with Palestinians.
Tomorrow’s briefing will be the third Council meeting held this week under the MEPQ agenda item. In addition to Tuesday’s briefing on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, the Council held a briefing today on the humanitarian conditions facing the remaining Israeli hostages held in the territory. Israel requested the meeting in a 14 March letter, which described the “inhumane conditions” in which the hostages are being held, including a lack of access to medical care, adequate sanitation and food, and visitation by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). France, the UK, and the US supported the meeting request. Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific Mohamed Khaled Khiari and released hostage Eli Sharabi briefed the Council.
In his remarks, Khiari reiterated the UN’s condemnation of the “appalling acts of terror” that Hamas committed during its 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, including hostage-taking, which is illegal under international humanitarian law. He also condemned Hamas’ degrading display of hostages in public ceremonies and messages recorded under duress. Khiari referred to the testimony of released hostages who have described “physical and psychological torture, sexual violence, and deprivation” in captivity, which indicate that the remaining hostages continue to suffer in “horrific conditions”. Illustrating this point, Sharabi—whose wife and two daughters were killed on 7 October 2023—described his time in captivity, during which he was kept underground, beaten, and denied access to medical care and adequate food and sanitation. He further claimed that Hamas diverted humanitarian aid, accused Palestinian civilians of supporting the group’s actions, and urged the international community to bring the remaining hostages home.
Khiari and most Council members also called for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and, until their release, for visitation from the ICRC and for dignified treatment in line with humanitarian principles. Referring to recent developments, these speakers expressed concern about the new outbreak of hostilities in Gaza and called on all parties to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law, describing the resumption of the ceasefire and humanitarian assistance as the best way to ensure the safety of both the remaining hostages and the civilian Palestinian population. Demonstrating the polarised positions of some members, however, the US blamed the collapse of the ceasefire solely on Hamas’ rejection of its extension proposals, while members such as Algeria, Guyana, Pakistan, and Somalia criticised Israel for resuming hostilities and emphasised the consistent application of international law and the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state along internationally recognised borders as the only solution to the root causes of the conflict.
