UN Security Council in intense negotiations on Gaza humanitarian resolution
Members of the United Nations Security Council are involved in intense negotiations over a draft resolution on the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza as they seek to funnel more aid to Palestinians and avoid another US veto.
The United States was working on Tuesday with countries on the council to resolve outstanding issues related to the draft resolution, the US Department of State said.
The resolution being worked on, the US said, would demand that Israel and Hamas allow aid into Gaza and set up UN monitoring of the humanitarian assistance delivered.
The vote, which had been expected to take place earlier on Tuesday, was already delayed by a day as council members sought to stave off another US veto and as Israel faces growing international pressure to change its tactics in the war against Hamas.
An initial draft text of the new resolution seen on Monday called for “an urgent and lasting cessation of hostilities to allow unimpeded access of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip”.
Diplomatic sources said this language has been watered down to an “urgent suspension of hostilities” and could be further weakened to satisfy Washington.
“The key sticking point, of course, we believe is the ‘cessation of hostilities’,” Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo said, reporting from the UN in New York.
“The United States and Israel say that any resolution that has those words in it is akin to a ceasefire, and they say that would only benefit Hamas, and so the US would reserve its veto power as it has done in the past. … We think they are trying to work out some sort of language there.”
On December 8, despite unprecedented pressure from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the US – Israel’s closest ally – blocked the adoption of a resolution calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”, the latest in several US vetoes on draft resolutions relating to the war.
Last week, the 193-member UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a similar resolution, but unlike the Security Council’s, its resolutions are nonbinding.
