Security Council approves humanitarian pauses in Gaza after 4 failed attempts
United Nations, Nov 15 (EFE).- The United Nations Security Council managed to approve on Wednesday a resolution to establish pauses and humanitarian corridors in Gaza, after four failed attempts since the beginning of the conflict between Israel and Hamas on Oct. 7.
The UN highest executive body approved a resolution proposed by Malta with twelve votes in favor, none against and three abstentions from the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia, which have veto power.
However, Russia tried unsuccessfully to introduce an amendment before the vote.
Also, the final draft softened the language from a “demand” to a “call” for “urgent and expanded humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip.”
It also requests “a sufficient number of days” for aid to enter Gaza for the benefit of civilians, “especially children,” and for the evacuation of injured infants and their caregivers.
The representative of Malta, Vanessa Frazier, denounced that Gaza “is becoming a children’s graveyard” and urged other members of the council to overcome their differences and not turn a blind eye to the suffering.
The text also calls for the immediate and unconditional release of hostages taken by Hamas, although it does not include an explicit condemnation of the Palestinian Islamist group’s attacks against Israel, something the United States and the United Kingdom criticized.
The US ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said that she “could not vote for a text that does not condemn Hamas” and, although she was “disappointed,” she stressed that it was the first resolution adopted that “mentions” Hamas by name.
Before the vote, Russian Ambassador Vasili Nebenzia tried to have the text call for an immediate, durable and sustainable humanitarian ceasefire leading to a cessation of hostilities, but was unsuccessful due to the US blockade, although it received five “yes” votes.
Shortly before the meeting, the Palestinian representative to the UN, Riyad Mansour, sent a letter to the Security Council accusing Israel of violating international law by attacking Al Shifa hospital, and Israeli soldiers of looting the facility, destroying equipment, beating doctors, and evicting patients, staff, and displaced civilians.
The Council had been unable to advance a resolution due to the vetoes of the United States on the one hand and Russia and China on the other, but at the end of October the General Assembly, whose resolutions are not binding, recognized the majority international will to stop the hostilities.EFE
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