The UN Security Council will vote on a resolution from the US calling for an “immediate and sustained ceasefire” in Gaza at a meeting at the body’s New York headquarters today.
Although the US has been Israel’s closest ally – vetoing three previous resolutions calling for a ceasefire – it now says, according to news agencies, that an “immediate and sustained ceasefire” was “imperative” adding that unequivocal support should be given to the hostage negotiations in support of that end.
The shift in tone and phrasing is being seen by some as a response to the growing catastrophe in Gaza with the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying this week that: “A hundred percent of the population of Gaza is experiencing severe levels of acute food insecurity. We cannot, we must not, allow that to continue.”
The UN resolution comes as European leaders separately met in Brussels to discuss a call from the member block for a ceasefire.
The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, yesterday said that “what’s happening today in Gaza is the failure of humanity. It is not a humanitarian crisis. It is the failure of humanity.”
He said the cause was “not an earthquake, is not a flood. It’s bombing” – and called for Israel to “respect the civilian population and allow aid into Gaza.”
“There is an airport an hour’s drive from where we are parachuting aid, but it is closed. We are building a port, even though there is already a port in Gaza. But it’s closed. And the land borders are open so little that supplies are not coming in,” he said.
Israel and the US are increasingly at odds Tel Aviv’s insistence that it will launch a ground assault in Rafah, where some 1.5 million Palestinians are effectively trapped with many having fled there after Israel’s military operations entered northern Gaza.
Blinken said yesterday that: “A major military operation in Rafah would be a mistake, something we don’t support. And, it’s also not necessary to deal with Hamas, which is necessary”.
However, Israeli leader, Benjamin Netanyahu has said: “we are determined to complete the elimination of these battalions in Rafah, and there’s no way to do that except by going in on the ground”.
Israel’s war on Gaza was prompted by deadly incursion by Hamas militants in southern Israel on October 7, in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed – and during which, a UN report says, there are grounds to believe that Hamas committed rape and sexual abuse, with further evidence indicating that hostages kidnapped by Hamas that day were subject to rape in captivity.
Five months later, more than 30,000 people have been killed by the Israeli bombardment and military actions, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
The UN says that one in three children under the age of two in northern Gaza were suffering from acute malnutrition due to the impacts of the war and restrictions on aid delivery.
Xavier Joubert, Country Director for Save the Children in Palestine said that children are “famine’s first victims and are already dying in Gaza because of malnutrition”.
Families in Gaza are surviving by consuming wheat, hay and animal food, the relief organisation said, warning that famine is “just weeks away” in northern Gaza, with many indicators of mass starvation “already exceeded”.
Yesterday, UK Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, shared his “enormous frustration” that British aid for the people of Gaza had been stuck at the border for almost three weeks.
A UN satellite analysis found that 35% of Gaza Strip’s buildings have been destroyed or damaged in the bombardment – representing 88,868 structures, among which 31,198 structures have been identified as destroyed, 16,908 severely damaged, and 40,762 moderately damaged.
“This represents an increase of nearly 20,000 damaged structures compared to the previous assessment realized in January 2024,” the report said.
UN Satellite Analysis Reveals 35% of Gaza Buildings Damaged or Destroyed in Israel-Hamas Conflict#Gaza #Gazafamine #IsraelHamasConflicthttps://t.co/nf6LbEUe0S
— GeetaPillai (@GeetaaPillai) March 21, 2024