The United Nations Security Council approved this Friday a resolution to facilitate the “immediate and safe delivery” of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
The text has been approved by 13 votes in favor, zero against and two abstentions, including the United States and Russia, after days of intense negotiations due to Washington's reluctance to the mechanism for monitoring humanitarian shipments coordinated by the UN proposed in another draft by United Arab Emirates.
The resolution, which although it maintains intact the mechanism supervised by the UN – despite the fact that the United States advocated that Israel be in control – has left out the request for an “urgent and sustainable” ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave.
A spokesman for the US mission to the UN, Nate Evans, already expressed “serious concerns” about said mechanism the day before and assured that, as the text was written, this could “slow down” the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Humanitarian breaks and corridors
Specifically, the text calls for “urgent humanitarian pauses and corridors for a sufficient number of days to allow full, rapid, safe and unhindered access” to Gaza.. In addition, he demands the release of all hostages.
The United States also opposed language used in the previous draft regarding a “ceasefire” in Gaza.. The final version of the text thus urges the creation of “the necessary steps to allow the entry of humanitarian aid”, which can help “create conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”
The vote comes after the United States vetoed a text in early December in the Council that called for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.