UNITED NATIONS, Dec 23: The UN Security Council has adopted a resolution that demanded scaling up humanitarian assistance throughout the Gaza Strip but did not call for a ceasefire which the UN Secretary General said was “needed” for aid to be effectively delivered.
After days of intense negotiations and delays on a vote, the 15-nation Council on Friday adopted the United Arab Emirates-drafted resolution with 13 votes in favour, none against and abstentions by Russia and the US.
The resolution demanded that parties to the conflict “allow, facilitate and enable the immediate, safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance at scale directly to the Palestinian civilian population throughout the Gaza Strip, and in this regard calls for urgent steps to immediately allow safe, unhindered, and expanded humanitarian access and to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”
It also demanded allowing and facilitating the use of “all available routes to and throughout the entire Gaza Strip, including border crossings.”
The resolution however did not call for a ceasefire and experts described it as being “watered-down”.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, speaking to reporters at the UN headquarters after the resolution was adopted, said that a humanitarian ceasefire is the only way to begin to meet the desperate needs of people in Gaza and end their ongoing nightmare. “I hope that today’s Security Council Resolution may help this finally to happen but much more is needed immediately,” he said.
In response to a question on whether he was hoping the Council would have joined his call for a ceasefire, Guterres said “Of course, I was hopeful. That doesn’t mean that things happen according to our hopes. But in any case today, you can see, always, a glass as half full or half empty.
“I hope that today’s resolution will make people understand that a humanitarian ceasefire is indeed something that is needed if we want humanitarian aid to be effectively delivered,” he said.
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said it took many days and “many, many long nights of negotiating to get this right, but today, this Council provided a glimmer of hope amongst a sea of unimaginable suffering.”
She said that through the resolution, the Council called for urgent steps to immediately allow safe, unhindered, and expanded humanitarian access and to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.
“I’ll note that this is the first time this Council has used this language. Language we believe is critical to scaling up aid and underscoring the tough steps ahead, as we work together to achieve a lasting peace,” she said.
To expedite the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, the resolution also requested Guterres to “expeditiously” appoint a Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator with responsibility for facilitating, coordinating, monitoring, and verifying the humanitarian nature of all relief consignments to Gaza provided through states which are not party to the conflict.
UN director at Human Rights Watch Louis Charbonneau said while the US didn’t block the resolution, it “worked hard to water it down in negotiations.
“Now the US needs to ensure that Israel implements it. Israel must immediately stop the atrocities – no more collective punishment, no more starving and unlawfully bombing civilians,” he said.
Reacting to the Council passing a “watered-down resolution”, Oxfam Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Sally Abi-Khalil said the failure to call for a ceasefire after five days of deliberate delays and dilutions of the resolution is “incomprehensible, and utterly callous.”
Oxfam said an immediate and permanent ceasefire is the only way to deliver humanitarian aid at the “scale and speed urgently needed, end the horrendous loss of life and ensure the safe return of hostages.”
Guterres noted with concern that over the last weeks and days, there has been no significant change in the way the war has been unfolding in Gaza.
“There is no effective protection of civilians. Intense Israeli bombardment and ground operations continue. More than 20,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed, the vast majority women and children,” he said, adding that about 1.9 million people – 85 per cent of Gaza’s population – have been forced from their homes.
Guterres said that Hamas and other Palestinian factions continue to fire rockets from Gaza into Israel.
He added that many people are measuring the effectiveness of the humanitarian operation in Gaza based on the number of trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent, the UN and its partners that are allowed to unload aid across the border.
“This is a mistake. The real problem is that the way Israel is conducting this offensive is creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza,” he said.
UAE’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh said that if “drastic action” is not taken, “there will be famine in Gaza.”
“The purpose of this text is very simple. It responds with action to the dire humanitarian situation on the ground for the Palestinian people bearing the brunt of this conflict while protecting those who are trying to deliver life-saving aid,” she said.
“We believe that the resolution begins to unblock life-saving aid whose denial has condemned more than half a million people, in Gaza, to famine,” she added. (PTI)
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