For The First Time, UN Security Council Demands Immediate Ceasefire In Gaza

Five months after the war broke out, the United Nations Security Council on Monday demanded an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas.

It has also demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages after the United States abstained from the vote.

"The Palestinian people has suffered greatly. This bloodbath has continued for far too long. It is our obligation to put an end to this bloodbath, before it is too late," Algeria's U.N. Ambassador Amar Bendjama told the council after the vote.

Israel has been carrying out a massive military offensive in Gaza following the unprecedented and multi-pronged attacks on Israeli cities by Hamas militants on October 7.

In the last five months, the US has been averse to the word ceasefire and had used its veto power to shield its ally Israel as it retaliated against Hamas for an Oct. 7 attack that Israel says killed 1,200 people.

On Monday, the US abstained from the vote to allow the Security Council to demand an immediate ceasefire.

"The United States support for these objectives is not simply rhetorical. We're working around the clock to make them real on the ground through diplomacy, because we know that it is only through diplomacy that we can push this agenda forward," Reuters quoted US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield as saying.

"A ceasefire can begin immediately with the release of the first hostage and so we must put pressure on Hamas to do just that," she said. Washington abstained from the vote because it did not agree with everything in the resolution and the text did not include a condemnation of Hamas, she added.

Shortly before the council met, the Israeli army radio reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would cancel a planned delegation to Washington if the US did not veto the resolution.

It comes amid growing global pressure for a truce in the war that has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians.