The UN Security Council acts to boost aid to Gaza after the US abstains.

After a week of vote delays and extensive talks to prevent a veto from the United States, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution on Friday to increase humanitarian supplies to the Gaza Strip. However, the resolution did not include a demand for a ceasefire.

The United Nations resolution “calls for urgent steps to immediately allow safe, unhindered, and expanded humanitarian access and to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”

As the number of deaths in Gaza continues to rise after 11 weeks of conflict between Israel and Hamas and as the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave continues to deteriorate, the United States of America exercised its right to abstain from allowing the 15-member council to adopt a resolution that the United Arab Emirates sponsored.

Except for Russia, which again refrained from voting, the remaining council members voted in favor of the resolution. Russia had previously supported an original draft that advocated for “an urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities” to facilitate relief access.

They believe that a ceasefire would only be beneficial to Hamas; hence, the United States and Israel are against it. Instead, the United States government is in favor of taking breaks in the conflict to safeguard civilians and liberate hostages held by Hamas.

“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,” the United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the United Nations, Lana Nusseibeh, said following the voting.

The resolution does not weaken Israel’s authority over any humanitarian deliveries to the 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza as a result of high-level discussions that were conducted in addition to winning over Washington. Israel is responsible for monitoring the meager assistance deliveries that are made to Gaza through the Rafah border from Egypt and the Kerem Shalom crossing, which is under Israeli control.

However, a softening of wording on a pause of hostilities has irritated many council members, notably Russia, which holds the right to veto, as well as Arab and Organization of Islamic Cooperation nations. According to diplomats, some of these governments interpret it as consent for Israel to take additional action against Hamas for an incident that occurred on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of several people.

The phrase “GLIMMER OF HOPE.”
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, referred to the resolution as “a glimmer of hope amongst a sea of unimaginable suffering.” She also mentioned that it was the first time the council had mentioned a suspension of hostilities. “We know so much; so much more needs to be done to address this humanitarian crisis and lay the groundwork for lasting peace.”

Russia suggested revising the proposal to include the original phrase that calls for “an urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities.” There was a veto of the amendment by the United States of America. A total of ten members voted in favor of it, while four members chose not to vote.

After voting on the resolution, Russia’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, addressed the council and accused the United States of “forcing into the text an essential license for Israel to kill Palestinian civilians in Gaza under the pretext of ‘creating conditions for a cessation of hostilities.'”

The United Nations General Assembly, comprised of 193 members, sought a humanitarian ceasefire earlier this month. 153 governments voted in favor of the proposal, which the United States government had rejected in the Security Council a few days earlier.

“This resolution is a step in the right direction; it must be implemented, and it must be accompanied by massive pressure for an immediate ceasefire,” said Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, when speaking before the council.

Jonathan Miller, Israel’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, stated before the council that any improvement to monitoring aid through the United Nations “cannot be done at the expense of Israel’s security inspection.”

The only obstacle that stands in the way of help entering the country is the United Nations’ capacity to receive it, Miller told the council. He also stated that Israel’s security inspections of aid will not be altered.

Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, stated to the press on Friday that how Israel was carrying out its military campaign in the Gaza Strip was “creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid” within the coastal enclave.

MONITORING OF IF AID
To allow the Security Council to call for immediate and lengthy humanitarian pauses in hostilities for a “sufficient number of days” to allow assistance access, the United States of America refrained from voting last month. That decision was made. After four failed efforts to take action, the decision was finally made.

Since an attack on October 7 by Hamas terrorists, in which Israel claims 1,200 people were murdered and 240 others were held captive, Washington has generally shielded its ally Israel from action taken by the United Nations. There have been two instances in which Washington has vetoed Security Council action.

The Israeli government has taken retaliatory action against Hamas by conducting a land invasion, placing a blockade on Gaza, and attacking the territory from the air. The government health authorities in Gaza, which Hamas administers, have reported that about 20,000 Palestinians have been murdered.

Officials from the United Nations have issued a warning about a humanitarian disaster, and the majority of Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to flee their homes. The World Food Programme has reported that fifty percent of Gaza’s population is starving, and since October 7, just ten percent of the food that is necessary has reached Gaza.

An original suggestion for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to establish a structure in Gaza to supervise aid from countries that are not parties to the war was a crucial sticking point during discussions on the resolution accepted on Friday.

As an alternative, a compromise was made, asking Guterres to appoint a senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator to establish a United Nations framework for speeding relief to Gaza through the government, not parties to the conflict. This was a more moderate compromise than the original one.

The coordinator would also be responsible for “facilitating, coordinating, monitoring, and verifying in Gaza, as appropriate, the humanitarian nature” of all the aid being provided.