The UN Security Council He again postponed a vote on a resolution to improve humanitarian aid. to the Gaza Strip.
Diplomatic sources indicated that the vote is scheduled for Friday, but the new text, the result of negotiations under the threat of a new veto from the United States, no longer resembles the version presented on Sunday by the United Arab Emirates.
The new draft resolution, drafted on Thursday, calls for “urgent measures to immediately allow safe humanitarian access and without obstacles and also create the conditions for a durable cessation of hostilities”.
The reference to an “urgent and lasting cessation of hostilities”, present in the first text, disappeared, as did the less direct request, in the following version, for an “urgent suspension of hostilities”.
“We have worked hard and diligently this week with the United Arab Emirates.with others, with Egypt, to reach a resolution we can support”said US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Thursday night.
“The draft resolution has not been weakened. The draft resolution is very strong and has the full support of the Arab bloc,” he said, adding that “humanitarian aid will be delivered to those who need it.”
The Council, harshly criticized for its inaction since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, has been negotiating intensively for several days, at the same time that the UN warns of the “unprecedented” food insecurity of the inhabitants. of Gaza, now threatened by famine.
The vote, initially scheduled for Monday, was postponed several times, notably on Wednesday, at the request of the United States, which on December 8 vetoed a previous text calling for a “humanitarian ceasefire” in the bombed Gaza Strip. by Israeli forces following the Hamas attack on October 7.
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, the Council has only managed to break its silence once: the November 15 resolution called for “humanitarian pauses.” In two months it rejected five other texts, two of which were vetoed by the United States, including the last one, on December 8.
At that time, despite pressure from UN Secretary General António Guterres, the United States blocked the call for a “humanitarian ceasefire”, also considered unacceptable by Israel.
The Hamas government, in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, announced Wednesday that Israeli military operations have killed 20,000 people in the enclave since the start of the war on October 7, and have also injured 52,600 people. .
Israel declared war on Hamas, in retaliation for the attack carried out by the group on October 7 in Israeli territory, which left 1,139 dead, most of them civilians, according to the most recent report by Israeli authorities.
Some 250 people were also kidnapped that day and taken to Gaza, 129 of whom remain captives of the movement, considered a terrorist organization by the EU, the United States and Israel.
Source: TSF
