UN Security Council set for Gaza resolution vote as US signals support for latest draft

T. Belman. According to this article “the resolution is expected to also call for the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”.  I doubt it because Israel would rightly say when the hostages are released, we will take “urgent steps “for creating the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”

This will render it meaningless.

Proposal said to call for ‘creating conditions for sustainable cessation of hostilities,’ unhindered humanitarian access, immediate release of all hostages; 

The United States has signaled its support for a draft resolution in its current form on the war between Israel and Hamas, with the United Nations Security Council set to hold a vote on the proposal later Friday, diplomatic sources said.

This marked the fourth time the Security Council delayed a vote this week as diplomatic efforts were being made to get the US — a veto-wielding permanent council member — on board with the resolution.

The US had earlier vetoed a resolution on December 9 that called for a ceasefire but did not condemn Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacres in Israel in which thousands of terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took some 240 hostages. That resolution also did not acknowledge Israel’s right to defend itself.

The wording now calls for urgent steps to immediately allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and also for creating the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”

The steps are not defined, but diplomats said, if adopted, this would mark the council’s first reference to a cessation of hostilities.

Sources previously indicated that another key sticking point was a proposal for the UN to create a monitoring mechanism for aid going into the Gaza Strip, but it appeared this demand was dropped.

The resolution demands that all sides “allow and facilitate the use of all… routes to and throughout the entire Gaza Strip, including border crossings… for the provision of humanitarian assistance.”

Additionally, the resolution is expected to call for the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”

The latest postponement came as the US, which has opposed several proposals during the resolution’s drafting this week, said it was ready to support it in its current form.

Israel has long opposed the use of the term “ceasefire,” and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said there will be no ceasefire in Gaza until the “elimination” of Hamas.

 

A picture taken from southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip on December 21, 2023, shows smoke billowing in northern Gaza following Israeli strikes amid the war against the Hamas terror group (Jack Guez/ AFP)

Last week, the UN General Assembly adopted the same non-binding resolution by 153 votes to 10, with 23 abstentions, out of 193 member states.

Bolstered by that overwhelming support, Arab countries announced the new attempt at the Security Council.

The war erupted when Hamas led some 3,000 terrorists in a devastating cross-border attack on October 7 that killed over 1,200 people, mostly civilians. At least 240 people of all ages were kidnapped and taken as hostages.

Following the attack, Israel vowed to topple Hamas, launching a major aerial offensive followed by the ongoing ground campaign.

Hamas’s media office in the Gaza Strip said Wednesday afternoon that the death toll in Gaza since the start of the war had crossed 20,000. The number cannot be independently confirmed, and it doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants. Hamas’s toll also includes those killed as rockets fired by terrorists fall short and land in the Gaza Strip. Israel says it has killed over 8,000 Hamas operatives in Gaza.

 

December 22, 2023 | 1 Comment »

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