Key Points
- The UN Security Councilapproved a vote calling for more aid to Gaza.
- The much delayed resolution stopped short of calling for a ceasefire.
- Hamas called the UN Security Council vote inadequate.
Fighting raged overnight between Israel and Hamas in Gaza as the UN Security Council approved a much-delayed resolution to boost aid to the besieged Palestinian territory where civilians are struggling to find food.
Following diplomatic wrangling, the United Nations Security Council finally adopted a resolution that “demands” all sides in the conflict allow the “safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance at scale”.
The resolution also urged the creation of “conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities” but did not call for an immediate end to fighting.
Israel ally the United States, which earlier this month blocked a vote calling for a ceasefire, abstained along with Russia, and the watered-down text passed with 13 votes in favour.
It came after the UN’s World Food Programme warned that Gaza’s population is at a “high risk of famine”.
The Hamas-run health ministry said more than 410 people had been killed in Israeli bombardment over 48 hours, including 16 in a strike Friday on the Gaza City district of Jabalia.
The significant escalation is the latest in a long-standing conflict between Hamas and Israel.
On October 7 Hamas gunmen broke through Gaza’s militarised border and killed around 1,200 people in Israel, according to Israeli figures.
Palestinian militants also abducted about 250 people, 129 of whom remain in Gaza according to Israeli authorities.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched a relentless bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza, where 20,057 people have been killed, according to the latest Hamas toll.
Palestinians line up for a free meal in Rafah, Gaza Strip. Source: AAP / Hatem Ali/AP
UN proposal watered down
The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, called the Security Council resolution “a step in the right direction”, adding that it “must be accompanied by massive pressure for an immediate ceasefire”.
Hamas in a statement called the vote “an insufficient measure that does not respond to the catastrophic situation created by the Zionist (Israeli) war machine”.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said after the vote that “the way Israel is conducting this offensive is creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza”.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said in a statement that “Israel will continue to inspect, for security reasons, all humanitarian assistance to Gaza”.
The fighting has displaced 1.9 million Gazans according to UN figures, out of a population of 2.4 million, and put out of action most of the 36 hospitals in the territory. Nine remain partly functioning, the World Health Organization says.
With swathes of Gaza reduced to rubble, the displaced have been forced into crowded shelters or tents, and are struggling to find food, fuel, water and medical supplies.
According to the UN, the number of aid trucks entering Gaza is well below the daily pre-war average.
Last week Israel approved the temporary delivery of aid via Kerem Shalom crossing, and the army says on average 80 trucks enter Gaza through it daily.
Rocket fire from Lebanon
Israel said another of its troops was killed on Friday by rocket fire from Lebanon, where the Iran-backed Hezbollah and other groups have carried out near-daily cross-border assaults in support of Hamas.
Hezbollah said two of its fighters were killed Friday.
Beyond regular exchanges of fire across the Lebanon border, the war has also sparked fears of wider conflict with missiles from Iran-backed Yemeni rebels – claiming to act in solidarity with Gazans – disrupting Red Sea shipping.
Palestinians mourn their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, at the hospital Rafah, southern Gaza. Source: AAP / Fatima Shbair/AP
The area around the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza has been a focus of Israeli military operations which “intensified” over the past week, a military spokesperson said.
Paula Gaviria Betancur, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, said in a statement that “Israel’s military operation in Gaza aims to deport the majority of the civilian population en masse” – claims Israel has denied before.
The UN-appointed independent expert said that with Gaza’s infrastructure “razed to the ground” any realistic prospects for displaced Palestinians to return home had been frustrated.
Last month, Qatar, backed by Egypt and the US, helped broker a week-long truce that saw 105 hostages released, including 80 Israelis in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
A US-Israeli man believed to have been taken captive by Hamas militants on October 7 was killed on the day of the attack, his kibbutz community said Friday.
Gad Haggai, 73, was a flautist. His 70-year-old wife remains a captive.
What is Hamas?
Hamas is a Palestinian political and military group, which has governed the Gaza Strip since the most recent elections in 2006.
Hamas’s stated aim is to establish a Palestinian state and stop the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, which is considered illegal under international law, including the Geneva Conventions and international legal jurisprudence.
Hamas in its entirety is listed as a terrorist organisation by Israel, United States, the European Union, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan and Paraguay.
Other countries list only its military wing as a terrorist group.
The UN did not condemn Hamas in its entirety as a terrorist organisation, due to insufficient support from member states during a 2018 vote.
In 2021 the International Criminal Court opened a formal ongoing investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes in the Palestinian territories dating back to 2014, including the recent Israeli military activity in Gaza and the West Bank as well as Hamas’ attack in Israel.
