UN Security Council adopted a resolution to increase aid delivery to Gaza, where the UN says a dire humanitarian crisis is unfolding.
United Nations: After four days of intense diplomacy to avert a US veto, the UN Security Council on Friday adopted a resolution to increase aid delivery to Gaza, where the UN says a dire humanitarian crisis is unfolding.
The US, facing isolation internationally and dissent within President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party, agreed not to veto the resolution and abstained after it had been modified to meet Washington’s demands.
Russia also abstained on the resolution after the US vetoed Moscow’s amendment to reinstate a call for a “suspension of hostilities”, which had originally been proposed.
Proposed by the United Arab Emirates, the resolution, in deference to the US, avoided any mention of a ceasefire or even a pause in fighting that Israel opposes, and instead, it called for steps “to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities”.
The resolution called “for urgent steps to immediately allow safe, unhindered, and expanded humanitarian access” and to “facilitate the use of all available routes to and throughout the entire Gaza Strip”.
Where the resolution moves the conditions for the supply of aid further is its call for the creation of a UN mechanism to speed up the delivery of aid with an official appointed by Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
A proposal for a UN mechanism to inspect the aid going to Gaza instead of Israel was removed at US insistence.
