2024-03-26 09:06:11
The UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza for the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, DPA reported. This is the first Council resolution adopted after nearly 6 months of war in the Gaza Strip.
The UN’s most powerful body expressed “deep concern over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip”. It also demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by the Palestinian group Hamas.
The veto-wielding United States abstained from Monday’s vote, allowing the resolution to pass, BTA writes. The remaining 14 members of the Security Council voted in favor.
The resolution, which is binding under international law, further increases international pressure on the parties to the conflict, namely Israel and Hamas.
It is not clear, however, to what extent the resolution will influence the decisions taken by the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or by Hamas on the further course of the war.
Just before the vote, Netanyahu threatened to cancel a planned trip by two of his envoys to Washington soon if the US did not use its veto power to block the resolution.
Efforts so far by the UN Security Council to call for a ceasefire have failed, largely because of opposition from the veto-wielding US.
As Israel’s closest ally, Washington has opposed a ceasefire since the war began last October and has vetoed 3 other resolutions. At best, US officials called for a shorter-term “ceasefire”.
Earlier today, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East complained that no humanitarian aid supplies reach the northern Gaza Strip despite urgent warnings about starvation of the population.
The statement followed the agency’s statements yesterday that Israeli authorities had informed the UN that they would no longer allow its food convoys into northern Gaza, where its head, Philippe Lazzarini, said people were on the brink of starvation.