At the end of May, with a speech at the White House, the US president Joe Biden revived Israel’s three-phase plan for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. A first phase involves six weeks of ceasefire with the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the most inhabited areas of the Strip; release of the most fragile Israeli prisoners (women, elderly, wounded…) kidnapped during the attack on 7 October; release of some Palestinian prisoners held by Israel; daily entry of 600 trucks of humanitarian aid. The second phase of the road map, with a view to a permanent ceasefire, then revolves around the release of all Israeli hostages (including soldiers) and the definitive withdrawal of the Israel Defense Force from the Strip. If everything goes smoothly, the third phase of the plan will coincide with a massive investment plan – with the involvement of the international community – for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip razed to the ground by Israel, starting with houses, schools and hospitals.
Last June 10, with 14 votes in favor and the sole abstention of Russia (which however did not exercise its right of veto), the United Nations Security Council approved the resolution proposed by the United States in support of the ceasefire plan fire relaunched by Biden at the end of May. Qatar, a country that together with the United States and Egypt is in the front line to mediate an agreement between Hamas and Israel, forwarded the proposal to the Palestinian organization, which initially said it was ready to negotiate the terms. But the path of negotiation does not seem exactly smooth: Israel continues to repeat that the war will only end with the total defeat of Hamas, while the latter poses more stringent conditions, which Israel interprets as a rejection of the plan.
Oxfam Italia’s spokesperson for humanitarian crises Paolo Pezzati, commented on the UN resolution on 11 June: “It is a step we have been waiting for for a long time,” he said in a note issued by Oxfam. «Finally, after eight months of brutal war, the Council has spoken with one voice calling for an immediate and total ceasefire, the release of hostages and illegally detained prisoners and for the entry of humanitarian aid necessary to be guaranteed as soon as possible. to help an exhausted population.” In Pezzati’s opinion, however, the plan envisaged by the UN resolution represents only a first step, necessary but not sufficient, in the direction of lasting peace in the Middle East: «Member States must also express themselves clearly on the Israeli occupation, which with the proposed agreement it must end throughout Gaza, as well as in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.” The risk of a failure to completely withdraw the Israeli forces could hide the temptation to continue the occupation and, perhaps, to «an annexation de factowhich would kill any hope of a just and lasting Peace.”
Oxfam therefore asks the 15 members of the Security Council and the entire international community – including the Italian government – to guarantee “the rapid and full implementation of this resolution” and invites them “to maintain the commitments made to put an end to the occupation and Israeli blockade; to support unrestricted humanitarian access for the population and the start of the reconstruction process in Gaza.”
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