The UN Security Council has adopted its first resolution since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, calling for \u201curgent and extended humanitarian pauses\u201d in Gaza to address the escalating crisis for Palestinian civilians during Israel\u2019s aerial and ground attacks. Israel immediately rejected the resolution. The vote in the 15-member council was 12-0 with the United States, United Kingdom and Russia abstaining. The US and UK abstained because of the resolution\u2019s failure to condemn Hamas\u2019 surprise cross-border attacks into Israel on October 7, and Russia because of its failure to demand a humanitarian cease-fire, which Israel and the United States oppose.<\/p>\n
The final draft watered down language from \u201cdemands\u201d to \u201ccalls\u201d for humanitarian pauses, and for \u201cthe immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas and other groups.\u201d Still, the resolution, which was sponsored by Malta, managed to overcome the serious differences that had prevented the council from adopting four previous resolutions. \u201cWhat we have achieved today is an important first step,\u201d Malta\u2019s UN Ambassador Vanessa Frazier said. \u201cWe will remain steadfast in our commitment to the protection of civilians and the plight of children in armed conflict that continue to suffer in a disproportionate manner.\u201d The resolution doesn\u2019t mention the October 7 attacks in Israel, where Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people and took some 240 others hostage. Nor does it mention Israel\u2019s response with airstrikes and a ground offensive in Hamas-ruled Gaza that the territory\u2019s health ministry says have killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia tried unsuccessfully to amend the resolution just before the vote with language from a resolution adopted October 27 by the 193-member General Assembly. It calls for an \u201cimmediate, durable, and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities.\u201d The vote on the amendment was five countries in favour, the US opposed, and nine abstentions. It was not adopted because it failed to get the minimum nine \u201cyes\u201d votes. Nebenzia said he abstained on the resolution because of appeals from the region for council action on the dire humanitarian situation. But he called it a disgrace that the council, which has \u201ca uniquely powerful toolbox\u201d including sanctions and even military action, \u201cfinally squeezed out such a weak call.\u201d \u201cAs the old saying goes, the mountain has laboured and brought forth a mouse,\u201d the Russian ambassador said.<\/p>\n
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said she remains \u201chorrified\u201d that a few council members can\u2019t condemn Hamas\u2019 \u201cbarbaric terrorist attack,\u201d and criticised the resolution for not reaffirming every country\u2019s right to self-defence. She did note that the resolution is the first ever adopted \u201cthat even mentions the word Hamas.\u201d Nonetheless, Thomas-Greenfield called the resolution \u201ca step forward\u201d and said the US supports its calls for humanitarian pauses and the release of hostages. United Arab Emirates Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh, the Arab representative on the council, said its members supported the resolution, which is the first on the situation in the Palestinian territories since 2016. \u201cIt is difficult geopolitical times, and to bring the unity of the council today to speak with one voice on the subject that has haunted all of us over the last month is, I think, momentous,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The resolution \u201cis a first, important and overdue step\u201d and will change the world\u2019s perception that the Security Council \u201cis indifferent,\u201d Nusseibeh said. But the world must not lose sight of the urgent goal of a lasting humanitarian ceasefire, she said. Israel\u2019s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan issued a statement saying the resolution \u201cis disconnected from reality and is meaningless.\u201d He criticised the council\u2019s failure to condemn Hamas, claiming the militants were deliberately allowing the humanitarian situation to deteriorate so the United Nations would pressure Israel to back off of Gaza. \u201cIt will not happen,\u201d Erdan said. \u201cIsrael will continue to act until Hamas is destroyed and the hostages are returned.\u201d UN Security Council resolutions are legally binding, unlike General Assembly resolutions, but in practice, many parties choose to ignore the council\u2019s requests for action.<\/p>\n
Richard Gowan, UN director for the International Crisis Group, said the Security Council has called for ceasefires in wars from the Balkans to Syria \u201cwith little or no impact.\u201d The General Assembly resolution was approved on October 27 by a vote of 120-14 with 45 abstentions. Since then, Israel agreed on November 9 to four-hour pauses. But only limited aid has been delivered to Gaza through the Rafah crossing from Egypt, and a humanitarian catastrophe has been brewing. Gowan said that the council was able to speak at all gives its member nations \u201csome respite,\u201d but would likely not have any significant impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe resolution is drafted in a way that puts no real political pressure on Israel, but the US will likely urge Israel to show more flexibility on aid issues to satisfy global opinion,\u201d Gowan said. \u201cThe council will not move from this text to a call for a ceasefire unless facts change significantly on the ground.\u201d The resolution calls for humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip for a \u201csufficient number of days\u201d for unhindered access by the UN, Red Cross, and other aid groups to get water, electricity, fuel, food, and medical supplies to all those in need. It says the pauses also should allow for the repair of essential infrastructure and enable urgent rescue and recovery efforts.<\/p>\n
It demands that \u201call parties comply with their obligations under international law, notably with regard to the protection of civilians, especially children.\u201d It also asks UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to report to the council at its next monthly Mideast meeting, on November 28, on implementing the resolution. Asked afterward about Israel\u2019s rejection of the resolution, Malta\u2019s Frazier and the UAE\u2019s Nusseibeh said it remains legally binding and pointed to Guterres\u2019 upcoming report. Nusseibeh said the secretary-general has been asked to bring ideas on what the UN would need \u201cfor further monitoring and implementation on the ground.\u201d Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, said the Security Council should have called for a ceasefire a long time ago, stressing that \u201cGaza bleeds death, devastation, destruction everywhere.\u201d It is \u201ca small, modest resolution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael considers all of us terrorists,\u201d he told the council after the vote. \u201cIsrael is not under threat of destruction. It is destroying Palestine. It considers the Palestinian state as a strategic threat. It is against Palestinian rule anywhere.\u201d Mansour said the Palestinians will keep coming back to the Security Council and the General Assembly for action, first and foremost for a ceasefire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The UN Security Council has adopted its first resolution since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, calling for \u201curgent and\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":11412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[2486,1629,1380,2932,3280,1418,536,673,344],"class_list":["post-11411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-aid","tag-ceasefire","tag-gaza","tag-gaza-humanitarian-crisis","tag-humanitarian-pauses","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-palestine","tag-resolution","tag-un"],"reading_time":"6 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}