What is the UN Security Council's resolution on Gaza and why is it so controversial?

Momentum for US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for war-torn Gaza has grown despite strong opposition from Hamas and other factions, who have said that it imposes foreign hegemony on the devastated Palestinian enclave.

On Monday, the UN Security Council adopted the US-backed resolution, seeking to begin the implementation of Trump's controversial 20-point peace deal that would see Gaza placed under the control of a "Board of Peace", chaired by Trump himself, with international troops on the ground.

The plan faces several hurdles, particularly on what the peacekeeping mission will look like and whether Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other factions in Gaza will disarm. Its commitment to forming a Palestinian state also remains vague.

What does the resolution entail?

Backed by 13 members of the Security Council, with US rivals Russia and China abstaining, Resolution 2803 bolsters Trump’s 20-point plan and would essentially see him in control.

The "Board of Peace" would establish an international stabilisation force (ISF) and a two-year governing committee in Gaza, both overseen by Trump, a proposal that has sparked outrage among Palestinians.

It is not yet clear who will be on the board. Trump wrote on social media that it will "be chaired by me and include the most powerful and respected Leaders throughout the World".

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was originally mooted to be Trump's deputy chief of the board, but the US president appeared to backtrack on this somewhat due to Blair's unpopularity with Palestinians and in the region generally.

The ISF would see the participation of various Arab and Muslim-majority countries, and would be in charge of securing border areas with Israel and Egypt, training and vetting a local Palestinian police force, and facilitating the entry of desperately needed humanitarian aid into Gaza, which Israel continues to prevent entering.

A committee of Palestinian technocrats would govern the Strip until the Palestinian Authority is "reformed", which could form a central part of the plan.

The Trump peace plan and the UN Security Council resolution have vaguely indicated that this could then entail the creation of a Palestinian state but this appears to be a distant prospect.

In convoluted language, the resolution does mention a possible future Palestinian state but says that the "conditions may be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood".

Israel’s far-right government has completely rejected the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Following the vote, the Security Council hailed the US, Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey for helping to make the ceasefire possible with the agreement coming into force on 10 October, just days after the brutal war’s second anniversary.

Despite this, Israel has continued its air strikes and shelling, which have killed hundreds of Palestinians since the truce was announced.

Disarming Hamas

One of the most crucial clauses of Trump's plan, and which Israel considers non-negotiable, is the disarmament of all armed groups in Gaza, particularly Hamas.

Monday’s resolution says the ISF must ensure "the process of demilitarising the Gaza Strip" and "the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups".

It authorises the ISF to "use all necessary measures to carry out its mandate" and Trump and Israel have warned they could disarm Hamas by force if the group refuses to do so.

Exhausted, starved, and displaced, this has raised fears among Gaza’s population of a resumption of war.

Although it has voiced readiness to hand over power in Gaza - which it has controlled since 2007 - Hamas has not publicly accepted surrendering its weapons, and stresses that Israeli forces must first leave the territory before its weapons can be discussed.

Following the endorsement, Hamas said, "assigning the international force with tasks and roles inside the Gaza Strip, including disarming the resistance, strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favour of the occupation".

Hurdles and tension

Many Palestinians have lambasted the plan, describing it as a form of "neo-colonialism" which aims to place Gaza under foreign control, even if this were temporary.

The formation of the ISF has already faced stumbling blocks and is proving challenging amid fallouts over which countries can take part.

Last week, the United Arab Emirates said its participation in the force was "unlikely," citing the lack of a clear framework for the proposed ISF.

Despite Ankara’s vital role in making the ceasefire possible, Israel says it refuses Turkey’s participation in the peacekeeping mission, as ties between the two continue to deteriorate over the war in Gaza. 

Another country that could participate in the ISF is Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world.

In recent remarks, Israel’s Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli accused Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan of enabling "terrorism".

"He is the driving force behind Turkey’s protection of Hamas. He hosts its leadership in Istanbul, grants Turkish passports to operatives, shields Hamas weapons programs, and embeds Hamas engineers inside Turkish institutions. Within Hamas, he is known as "the Turkish officer", Chikli wrote Sunday on X.

Despite continued diplomatic and economic relations, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called Israel a "terrorist state" and says its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was "worse than Hitler".

Egypt, one of the key brokers of the ceasefire and which borders Gaza, is most likely to take part in the ISF, but even then, tensions with Israel are still running high.

Earlier this month, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz declared that the border region between Egypt and Israel would become a "closed military zone", allowing Israeli forces to open fire on "unauthorised" entrants, citing an increase in arms smuggling.

Critics say this could potentially be a violation of the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.