"It's an ambitious project. It will take time," French UN Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere said of the text, which will need at least 9 votes in favour and no vetoes by the four other permanent members: the United States, Britain, Russia, and China.

The draft resolution, seen by Reuters, also calls for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas in Gaza and demands the immediate and unconditional release of all captives still held in Gaza by Hamas and others.

The United States abstained from a vote last month to allow the 15-member council to demand an immediate ceasefire for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which ends next week, and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.

Israel rejected the resolution.

Alongside a push to end the war, global pressure has grown for a resumption of efforts to broker a two-state solution - with an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

The draft Security Council resolution "decides that a negotiated solution should be achieved urgently through decisive and irreversible measures taken by parties towards a two-state solution where two democratic States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace."

It also calls for the "massive delivery of humanitarian aid" to civilians in Gaza.

A global authority on food security has warned that famine is imminent in parts of Gaza, where more than three-quarters of the 2.3 million people have been forced from their homes and swathes of the territory are in ruins.