U.S. will support Gaza resolution in U.N. Security Council
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The United States is prepared to support a new draft resolution in the U.N. Security Council that calls for an indefinite pause in the fighting to permit more humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said late Thursday. A vote on the measure is scheduled for Friday.
"We're ready to move forward," Thomas-Greenfield told reporters outside the council chamber after a fourth straight day of closed-door negotiations. "It will be a resolution - if the resolution is put forward as is - that we can support."
The new draft replaces a resolution offered Monday by Arab countries that avoided calling for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in the war, in hopes of avoiding language that had brought U.S. vetoes of several previous U.N. votes since Israel began military operations in Gaza immediately following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.
The new draft retains much of the Monday language, calling for "urgent and extended humanitarian pauses" in the fighting throughout Gaza and the opening of corridors inside the enclave "for a sufficient number of days to enable full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access."
But it alters another passage involving the pre-screening of all goods going into Gaza, calling for U.N. Secretary General António Guterres to appoint a senior coordinator "with responsibility for facilitating, coordinating, monitoring, and verifying in Gaza, as appropriate, the humanitarian nature" of all assistance, and demands that "the parties to the conflict cooperate with the coordinator to fulfill their mandate without delay or obstruction."
That vague phrasing replaces initial wording that gave Guterres "exclusive" control over all truck inspections, a formulation that was rejected by both the United States and Israel. Until now, screening has been performed by Israel alone, seeking to prevent any military or other assistance going to Hamas. U.N. officials had also asked for more "flexibility" in the language, according to people familiar with the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the sensitive negotiations.
U.S. support for the resolution comes as the Biden administration has become increasingly isolated in its support for Israel and refusal to support widespread calls for a cease-fire, even as it has pressed for a change in Israeli military tactics amid nearly 20,000 civilian deaths from its airstrikes and ground operations, according to Gazan health authorities, and international warnings of widespread famine and disease in Gaza.
Over a quarter of the population of Gaza faces "catastrophic hunger and starvation," according to a study published Thursday by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), part of an international early warning system first established in the 1980s by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Drawing on data from the United Nations and other sources, the report says approximately 576,600 people have run out of food completely, with the broader population facing acute food insecurity.
The staggering figures stand out even against more encompassing global hunger statistics.
"The number of people facing 'catastrophic' levels of hunger in Gaza is four times greater than the total number of people facing 'catastrophic' levels of hunger worldwide," said World Food Program (WFP) spokesperson Steve Taravella. "The scale and swiftness of this crisis is unprecedented in modern times," Taravella said. "If current predictions continue, we will reach famine by February."
"We have worked hard and diligently over the course of the past week with the Emiratis, with others, with Egypt, to come up with a resolution that we can support," Thomas-Greenfield said. "And we do have that resolution now. We're ready to vote on it. And it's a resolution that will bring humanitarian assistance to those in need."
In addition to questions about the inspections, U.N. officials have said the distribution of aid flowing into Gaza - only a fraction of what is needed, according to humanitarian organizations - has been prevented by ongoing Israeli attacks.
"Currently, intense fighting, lack of electricity, limited fuel and disrupted telecommunications severely restrict access to loading points and to trucks" inside Gaza for distribution, Guterres spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said Thursday.
Even before wide-scale Israeli attacks moved to southern Gaza, officials from the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations have assessed Israel's lengthy inspection regime as contributing to delays in assistance. While the United States was "actively working with our partners" on language in the U.N. resolution about the issue, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, "Israel has had, and understandably so, . . . a role in the inspection regime - a key role, a pivotal role. And we understand and respect that."
In an angry response to charges that Israel is hindering the flow of aid, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said it was the United Nations' "utter failure" to provide for the people of Gaza.
"Today it is possible to provide three times the amount of humanitarian aid to Gaza if the U.N. - instead of complaining all day - would do its job," Herzog said, according to a Times of Israel report on Herzog's meeting with a visiting French lawmaker. He repeated that Israel is ready to pause the fighting and facilitate far more aid into Gaza if Hamas will release about 130 Israeli and foreign hostages it still holds.
The draft resolution calls for the "immediate and unconditional" release of the hostages. It also demands that "all parties to the conflict comply with their obligations under international law . . . including with regard to the conduct of hostilities and the protection of civilians and civilian objects."
It reiterates the council's "unwavering commitment" to a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians and "stresses the importance of unifying the Gaza Strip with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority." Both goals, supported by the Biden administration, have been rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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