Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte has welcomed the UN Security Council vote in favour of a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and unconditional release of all hostages taken during the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks.

Rutte said the vote is “important” and that “what is now needed is to stop the violence, free the hostages, immediately send in vastly more humanitarian aid to Gaza and find a lasting solution.”

Foreign minister Hanke Bruins Slot said on social media she hoped “this resolution exerts effective pressure so that a real ceasefire will be achieved.”

The US abstained on the resolution rather than use its veto as it has on three earlier occasions, a move which led Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel his visit to the White House to discuss a planned Israeli military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.