UN Security Council approves Gaza aid but rejects ceasefire

UN Security Council approves Gaza aid but rejects ceasefire

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The United Nations Security Council has approved a resolution pressing for the urgently needed passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza after 11 weeks of Israel’s devastating siege of the beleaguered strip.

But after several days of negotiations led by the United States, the council stopped short of a resolution calling for an immediate cessation of violence, instead approving a water-down measure in an effort to survive a veto from the US.

The US and Russia ultimately abstained from voting.

The resolution demands “urgent steps to immediately allow safe, unhindered, and expanded humanitarian access and to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities,” amid dire warnings from international aid groups and pressure from global officials for an end to the siege.

Within 10 weeks, Israel’s air-and-ground assault in Gaza has now killed more than 20,000 people, a figure that amounts to nearly 1 per cent of the population before Israel’s war against Hamas.

Israel launched its devastating retaliatory campaign following Hamas attacks in Israel on 7 October that left 1,200 people dead and took roughly 240 hostages. Israel’s response has killed roughly one in every 100 people in Gaza. More than two-thirds are women and children.

The “purpose” of the draft resolution introduced by the United Arab Emirates said “is very simple,” ambassador Lana Nusseibeh told the council in New York on Friday.

It “responds with action” to the dire conditions in Gaza while protecting those who are trying to deliver aid,” she said.

But, she added, “we know only a ceasefire will end this suffering.”

Following earlier vetoes from US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield and pressure from President Joe Biden’s administration, the resolution’s passage followed another week of delays, marked by intense negotiations involving UN Secretary-General Antiono Guterres in an effort to broker its passage with US support.

American and Israeli officials have insisted that any pause in the fighting will simply aid Hamas militants in their efforts to regroup.

A measure blocked on Tuesday would have called for a legally binding “urgent suspension of hostilities to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access and for urgent steps [to be taken] towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities”.

Additional reporting by John Bowden in Washington DC

This is a developing story

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