The US government once again yesterday, Thursday, did not allow the adoption by the UN Security Council of a text that demanded a ceasefire and humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip, provoking angry and indignant reactions from other member states, who did not want this draft resolution to be abandoned, despite Washington's repeated vetoes.
It is a "dark moment" for the UN, said Pakistan's ambassador, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad. "The world is watching. The cries of children should break our hearts, the anguish of mothers should shake our consciences," he added, promising that "we will continue to act, to speak."
“We apologize that this Council was unable to save your children,” Algerian Ambassador Amar Benzama said, addressing the people of Gaza. “We apologize that the world talks about rights but denies yours, the Palestinians.”
Most members of the Security Council no longer hide their despair, they express it more and more frequently, in the face of the inability to exert pressure on Israel to end the suffering of civilians in the Gaza Strip.
The ten elected members of the Security Council began talks on the rejected plan in late August, reacting to the UN's official declaration of a state of famine in the Palestinian enclave that has suffered enormous devastation in the war waged by Israel for almost two years.
The first version of the text mainly demanded the immediate removal of all obstacles to the entry of humanitarian aid.
But according to diplomatic sources, France, Britain and Russia have expressed doubts about whether a decision focused solely on humanitarian issues would help the body that is intended to defend peace and security at the international level — and in any case would be blocked by the US.
The plan, which was rejected yesterday (14 votes in favor, one against), demanded an end to restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid, as well as an "immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza", as well as the unconditional release of the hostages.
"Human failure"
Washington had already repeatedly rejected similar draft resolutions, most recently in June, when the US exercised its veto for the umpteenth time to protect its closest ally in the Middle East, Israel.
The draft resolution "does not recognize the reality on the ground, the fact that there has been a significant increase in the flow of humanitarian assistance," argued US diplomat Morgan Ortagus.
Moreover, it did not include "condemnation of Hamas," Israeli ambassador Danny Danon said. "This is not diplomacy, it is capitulation," he added.
Why did the other member states withdraw from the new venture, even though it seemed doomed to the same outcome?
To send "a message that the Security Council does not turn its back on civilians dying of hunger, nor on hostages, and demands a ceasefire," said Danish Ambassador Christina Marcus Lassen before the vote.
"An entire generation is at risk of being lost, not only because of war, but also of hunger and despair (…) It is the catastrophic humanitarian situation, the humanitarian and human failure, that has forced us to act," he explained.
Israel is facing increasing international pressure to end the war in the Gaza Strip, which was triggered by the unprecedented incursion by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas into the southern part of Israeli territory on October 7, 2023.
The issue will be at the heart of the UN's annual session, the General Assembly's high-level week, starting Monday.
After two and a half months of total blockade, Israel allowed a limited number of UN trucks to enter the Gaza Strip in mid-May, but the international organization's services emphasize that the quantities entering since then are a drop in the ocean.
On August 22, the UN officially declared a famine in the Palestinian enclave, blaming Israel. The Israeli government rejected the Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC) report on which the conclusion was based.
On Tuesday, for the first time, an independent commission of inquiry that acts under the mandate of the UN but does not speak on its behalf accused Israel of committing “genocide” in the Gaza Strip, intending to “destroy” the Palestinians. The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also rejected the “scandalous” conclusion.
The October 7, 2023 raid left 1.219 people dead on the Israeli side, the majority of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Of the 251 people abducted that day, 47 remain in the Gaza Strip, but Israel has declared 25 of them dead.
According to Hamas's Health Ministry figures, Israeli large-scale military retaliatory operations have since killed at least 65.141 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, in the enclave where the Palestinian Islamist movement took power in 2007.
The Israeli army announced yesterday the death of 4 of its men in the southern Gaza Strip. Officially, its losses in the war amount to 472.
Source: protothema.gr
