The Middle East, including the Palestinian Question: Quarterly Open Debate
Tomorrow (23 October), the Security Council will hold its quarterly open debate on “The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question”. The anticipated briefer is Ramiz Alakbarov, the Deputy Special Coordinator and Resident Coordinator at the Office of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO). Russia has chosen to designate the meeting as a signature event of its October Council presidency.
The current ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is expected to be the major focus of tomorrow’s meeting. On 8 October, the parties agreed to the first phase of a ceasefire framework proposed by the US, which called for Hamas to release the remaining hostages it was holding—20 living and 28 deceased—in exchange for the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees, a partial withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from Gaza, and an increase in humanitarian aid into the territory. In accordance with the deal, Hamas released all the living hostages on 13 October. It has also begun returning the remains of deceased hostages, but the group says that locating and retrieving some of the bodies is complicated by the scale of destruction in Gaza and the lack of specialised equipment required to remove rubble. At the time of writing, 15 deceased hostages had been returned, and a US-led multinational task force, including officials from other mediating countries such as Egypt and Türkiye, is being established to help locate the remaining ones.
The ceasefire is fragile and has been interrupted by intermittent violence, with each side accusing the other of violating the agreement. The IDF has fired at Palestinians who it says have crossed the “yellow line” marking the territory that it still holds, which comprises over half the enclave. In one such incident on 17 October, Israeli forces fired at a bus in Gaza City, reportedly killing 11 members of the same family, including women and children. Two days later, militants attacked IDF troops near the southern city of Rafah, killing two soldiers. Hamas said that it was unaware of clashes in the area, had not been in contact with its units there in months, and remained committed to the ceasefire. Israel responded with strikes across the enclave, reportedly killing at least 36 Palestinians, and temporarily halting humanitarian aid. The IDF subsequently said that it had “begun the renewed enforcement” of the ceasefire, adding that it will “continue to uphold the ceasefire agreement and will respond firmly to any violation of it”.
Separately, Hamas has reportedly attempted to reassert control in parts of Gaza from which the IDF has withdrawn, carrying out reprisals against rival militias and local families and staging public executions of individuals it accuses of having collaborated with Israel.
The first stage of the ceasefire forms part of the larger peace framework that US President Donald Trump presented in late September as the “20-point plan”. Among other provisions, the second stage calls for Hamas members to “decommission their weapons”; the further withdrawal of the IDF, which will progressively hand over security responsibility for Gaza to an International Stabilisation Force (ISF); and the establishment of an interim technocratic government in Gaza comprising Palestinian experts under the oversight of an international transitional body chaired by Trump. This body is to eventually cede control of Gaza to a reformed Palestinian Authority (PA), at which point “the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood”. At the time of writing, negotiations on these steps—which include demands that both Hamas and Israel have publicly rejected in the past—had not yet formally begun, but a Hamas delegation has reportedly met with Egyptian mediators in Cairo, while three US officials—Vice President JD Vance, Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff, and adviser Jared Kushner—have been in Israel this week to help advance the framework.
At tomorrow’s meeting, Alakbarov and member states are expected to welcome the ceasefire agreement and the release of the hostages. They are likely to express concern at continued reports of violence and call on both parties to fully implement their ceasefire obligations. They may also stress that Gaza’s humanitarian needs remain immense following two years of war, previous restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid, and the confirmation of famine in parts of the territory in August. In this regard, Alakbarov may detail the UN’s efforts to implement its 60-day plan to scale up humanitarian assistance under the ceasefire. He may also call for more support to the Organisation’s 2025 Flash Appeal for the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), which was only 31 percent funded as at 16 October. Relatedly, some speakers may refer to the advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) today (22 October), which found that Israel, as an occupying power, is obligated to allow UN agencies, including the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), to provide humanitarian aid in Gaza. (The General Assembly requested the advisory opinion in December 2024, after the Israeli parliament passed two laws effectively banning UNRWA from operating in the OPT.)
Looking ahead, speakers may urge the parties to begin good-faith negotiations on the second stage of the ceasefire with the aim of addressing the root causes of the Israel-Hamas war and launching a credible political process towards the realisation of the two-state solution. Some Council members may stress the need for the peace process to include mechanisms that ensure accountability for violations of international law that were committed during the war, which the 20-point plan does not stipulate. Some may also call for the full, equal, meaningful, and safe participation of women in the negotiations, noting that the Secretary-General’s most recent annual report on women, peace and security (WPS), dated 5 September, found that only seven percent of peace negotiators and 20 percent of signatories to peace agreements were women in 2024. Several members may also call for the prompt deployment of the ISF—which is expected to require Security Council authorisation—when conditions on the ground allow, emphasising the importance of a clearly defined mandate, the consent of the involved parties, and robust oversight to ensure compliance with international law.
The situation in the West Bank is another expected focus of the open debate. According to the UN Human Rights Office in the OPT, as at 17 October, 1,001 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli security forces and settlers in the West Bank since October 2023, representing 43 percent of all Palestinians killed in the area in the past 20 years. One in five of those killed were children. In the same period, 59 Israelis had been killed in Palestinian attacks or armed clashes, including five children. The rise in violence has occurred alongside an expansion of Israeli settlements and the transfer of Israeli governance powers from military to civilian administrations, which some analysts argue increasingly resembles formal annexation of the territory—a move that the Israeli parliament approved in a preliminary vote held today. Some speakers at tomorrow’s meeting may stress the centrality of the West Bank to future Palestinian sovereignty and emphasise the need for any peace initiative to ensure the viability and contiguity of a future Palestinian state. They may also reiterate calls on Israel to abide by the ICJ’s July 2024 advisory opinion, which found that the country’s continued presence in the OPT is unlawful.
Many speakers are also likely to refer to regional developments. Following the ouster of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, Israel has expanded its control of territory in the Golan and conducted airstrikes and incursions into Syrian territory, actions which Israel claims are aimed at ensuring its national security and protecting Syria’s Druze community from sectarian violence. The countries have engaged in negotiations on a bilateral security pact to stabilise relations, but those talks reportedly stalled in late September when Israel demanded that it be allowed to open a “humanitarian corridor” to Suweida, a Druze-majority governorate in south-west Syria. Meanwhile, Israel has continued to carry out strikes in southern Lebanon—which it asserts target Hezbollah militants, facilities, and weapons—despite the November 2024 ceasefire between the countries. Until recently, the Houthi rebel group in Yemen had been carrying out attacks against Israel and in the Red Sea as part of a campaign started in October 2023 after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. This had previously prompted retaliatory IDF strikes in Yemen, although the Houthis have since paused their attacks following the ceasefire agreement in Gaza. In this context, speakers at tomorrow’s meeting may describe the full implementation of the ceasefire agreement and broader peace efforts as a requisite step towards regional security and stability.
