The U.S. abstained in the vote on an immediate ceasefire resolution in Gaza, 2728, the first in six months of war.

The majority of members of the Security Council and numerous experts reject this reading and believe that the text binds the parties, although the organization does not have the coercive power to make Israel and Hamas apply it. For Washington, it was a rhetorical feint so that the blow publicly dealt to its great ally in the Middle East would go more unnoticed: a non-binding resolution does not obligate anything in principle, much less the cessation of hostilities.