Correspondent to Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Nasra Habibullah:

“Initially, Israel opposed the UN Security Council resolution. Prime Minister Netanyahu backtracked slightly immediately after US President Biden’s speech in which he presented the final ceasefire proposal. He said that the full plan had not been presented to him, and that there were differences between the proposal presented to Israel and Biden’s proposal.

Ultimately, the United States modified the resolution slightly. For example, the point that the United States is against buffer zones has been removed. Israel really wants that. It seems that these amendments are now sufficient for Israel. This was also noticeable last night during the vote in the Security Council: there was no criticism from the representative of Israel.

However, there is still no agreement. Israel will not talk about a permanent ceasefire unless Hamas disappears. Hamas is only willing to talk seriously if the goal is to reach a permanent truce. When Biden presented the plan, it all seemed hopeful, but we later found out that little had changed. Negotiations are still pending on the same points. The hope is that with this decision the pressure on both camps will be so great that they will agree, although it is still difficult.”