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The UN Security Council has passed a resolution calling for urgent expanded humanitarian aid for Gaza and the creation of “conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities”, after overcoming the threat of an American veto.
The US and Russia both abstained, while 13 other members voted in favour of the measure, which Washington’s ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield described as “humanitarian-focused”.
The vote on Friday followed days of diplomatic wrangling and debate over the language, in a bid to avoid another veto from the US, which blocked another UNSC resolution earlier this month that called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Friday’s resolution is intended to expedite aid to Gaza and will designate a senior UN official to oversee humanitarian assistance to the enclave.
But the weakening of language on a ceasefire frustrated several security council members, including Arab states and Russia, which also has veto power.
“This was tough, but we got there,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “Today’s vote . . . lends support to our direct diplomacy.”
The US and Israel continue to oppose calls for an immediate ceasefire, which they say will only benefit Hamas and allow it to regroup. They are instead working on an effort to create another humanitarian pause to facilitate the release of about 100 hostages left in Gaza.
Speaking after the vote, Thomas-Greenfield said it was “up to Hamas” to agree to another temporary truce.
The US and Israel are increasingly isolated as global outcry mounts over a rising death toll in Gaza and a humanitarian crisis there after 11 weeks of war.
The vote on Friday coincided with a grim milestone, after Palestinian authorities said that more than 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza had now been killed since Israel launched a military campaign to respond to Hamas’s October 7 attack, which killed 1,200 Israelis.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza also grows increasingly dire by the day. All of Gaza’s 2.2mn people are experiencing some level of food crisis, with 576,600 seeing “catastrophic” starvation, according to a UN report released on Thursday.
With deliveries to Gaza largely cut off, the UN World Food Programme assesses that 90 per cent of Gaza’s population is regularly going without food for a day. The body said that without an immediate surge in aid, the entire enclave would face famine within six months.
Israel has laid siege to the strip since Hamas’s October attack, but has denied any food shortage, disputed the death count and said it has killed thousands of Hamas fighters.
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