The humanitarian organization Mercy Corps has released a statement on the UN security council’s passage of a resolution surrounding expanded aid delivery into Gaza, saying that “nothing short of a ceasefire and an end to the seige will prevent this catastrophic and preventable loss of life.”
Kate Phillips-Barrasso, the organization’s vice-president of global policy and advocacy, said:
“While we are relieved to finally see agreement in the security council on the gravity and urgency of the humanitarian situation, the failure of this resolution to address what is most needed by the 2 million people in Gaza facing starvation cannot be called an achievement.
Without an immediate and sustainable pause in hostilities, women and children will continue to die in bombardments and aid organizations will not be able to scratch the surface in meeting needs.
We cannot deliver aid to 2.3 million people under active bombardment and by trucking it in. Nothing short of a ceasefire and an end to the siege will prevent this catastrophic and preventable loss of life.”
Closing summary
We’ll shut this blog now – it’s nearly 2am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Our live coverage will continue later in the day. Here is where things stand:
UN chief Antonio Guterres has issued a statement following the UN security council’s passage of the resolution surrounding aid delivery into Gaza, saying: “I hope that today’s security council resolution may help improve the delivery of much-needed aid but a humanitarian ceasefire is the only way to begin to meet the desperate needs of people in Gaza and end their ongoing nightmare. As difficult as it might appear today, the two-state solution - in line with UN resolutions, international law and previous agreements - is the only path to sustainable peace.”
The Palestinian Authority and Hamas have issued different responses towards the UN security council resolution that was passed on Friday surrounding Gaza aid delivery. The Palestinian foreign ministry, which is part of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, called the resolution “a step in the right direction,” and said it would help “end the aggression, ensure the arrival of aid and protect the Palestinian people.” But Hamas, the militants who run Gaza, called the resolution an “insufficient step” for meeting the impoverished enclave’s needs.
The International Rescue Committee, the global humanitarian organisation, lamented the lack of a resolution by the UN security council demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, even as it welcomed the resolution on aid. It also welcomed the call for the unconditional release of remaining hostages held by Hamas after they were snatched from southern Israel during the October 7 attack that triggered the current war. “From a humanitarian point of view, the failure of the UNSC to demand an immediate and sustained ceasefire is unjustifiable,” the IRC said in a statement.
The United Nations Security Council, after days of delay, passed a new resolution on Gaza aid delivery, with 13 votes in favour, no votes against and abstentions by the US and Russia. Although abstaining, it was pivotal for Gaza that the US did not veto and therefore block the resolution. A vote had originally been expected on Monday but was delayed day after day as negotiations went on to try to get the pieces in place for the resolution to pass when it did finally come to the vote.
Israeli forces signalled they were widening their ground offensive with a new push into central Gaza on Friday, as the UN security council was expected to vote on a resolution to increase humanitarian aid to stave off the threat of famine. As hopes faded for an imminent breakthrough in talks this week in Egypt aimed at getting warring Israel and Hamas to agree a new truce, air strikes, artillery bombardments and fighting were reported across the Palestinian territory.
The US is assembling a multinational naval coalition to help safeguard commercial traffic from attacks by Yemen’s Houthi movement. On Thursday, the Pentagon said more than 20 countries had now agreed to participate in the group, known as Operation Prosperity Guardian. Some countries have not confirmed their participation, however, while others have said their efforts to help protect Red Sea commercial traffic will be as part of existing naval agreements rather than the new US-led operation.
The European Commission on Friday said it had adopted a €118m ($130m) aid package to support the Palestinian Authority. The commission said the aid would help pay salaries and pensions of civil servants in the West Bank, social allowances for vulnerable families and the payment for medical referrals to East Jerusalem hospitals.
Gaza health officials say more than 20,000 people have been killed in the war. Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said on Friday that it has documented 20,057 deaths in the fighting. It does not differentiate between combatant and civilian deaths. It has previously said that roughly two-thirds of the dead were women or minors.
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UN chief Antonio Guterres has issued a statement following the UN security council’s passage of the resolution surrounding aid delivery into Gaza, saying:
I hope that today’s security council resolution may help improve the delivery of much-needed aid but a humanitarian ceasefire is the only way to begin to meet the desperate needs of people in Gaza and end their ongoing nightmare.
I hope that today’s Security Council resolution may help improve the delivery of much-needed aid but a humanitarian ceasefire is the only way to begin to meet the desperate needs of people in Gaza and end their ongoing nightmare.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) December 22, 2023
“As difficult as it might appear today, the two-state solution - in line with UN resolutions, international law and previous agreements - is the only path to sustainable peace. Any suggestion otherwise denies human rights, dignity and hope to the Palestinian people,” he added.
As difficult as it might appear today, the two-state solution - in line with UN resolutions, international law and previous agreements - is the only path to sustainable peace.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) December 22, 2023
Any suggestion otherwise denies human rights, dignity and hope to the Palestinian people.
Following the UN security council’s passage of a diluted resolution surrounding the delivery of aid into Gaza, the Guardian’s Julian Borger reports on the impact it will potentially have on the ground:
UN security council resolution 2720 will not stop the Israeli offensive, and does not seek to. It only calls for “urgent steps” to establish “conditions” for a sustainable ceasefire, which are open to interpretation.
Israel believes those steps involve the complete destruction of Hamas. As for humanitarian deliveries, it depends. A UN special coordinator is to be appointed to orchestrate an increase in the flow of aid, and the resolution “demands” that concerned parties, ie Israel, give full cooperation.
The precedents are not good however. Israel generally sees the UN as hostile and biased actor and recently revoked the visa of the resident UN coordinator for occupied Palestinian territories.
For the full explainer, click here:
The Palestinian Authority and Hamas have issued different responses towards the UN security council resolution that was passed on Friday surrounding Gaza aid delivery.
Reuters reports:
The Palestinian foreign ministry and the Islamist group Hamas issued opposing statements on Friday in response to the adoption by the UN security council of a resolution intended to help bring more humanitarian aid into the Gaza strip.
The Palestinian foreign ministry, which is part of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, called the resolution “a step in the right direction,” and said it would help “end the aggression, ensure the arrival of aid and protect the Palestinian people.”
“We consider it a step that may contribute to alleviating the suffering of our people in the Gaza Strip,” the foreign ministry statement said.
But Hamas, the militants who run Gaza, called the resolution an “insufficient step” for meeting the impoverished enclave’s needs.
“During the past five days, the U.S. administration has worked hard to empty this resolution of its essence, and to issue it in this weak formula... It defies the will of the international community and the United Nations general assembly in stopping Israel’s aggression against our defenseless Palestinian people,” the statement said.
Here are some images coming through the newswires from Gaza where over 20,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes while displaced survivors grapple with shortages in food, water, fuel and medical supplies:
Summary
The International Rescue Committee, the global humanitarian organisation, lamented the lack of a resolution by the UN Security Council demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, even as it welcomed the resolution on aid. It also welcomed the call for the unconditional release of remaining hostages held by Hamas after they were snatched from southern Israel during the October 7 attack that triggered the current war. “From a humanitarian point of view, the failure of the UNSC to demand an immediate and sustained ceasefire is unjustifiable,” the IRC said in a statement.
The United Nations Security Council, after days of delay, passed a new resolution on Gaza aid delivery, with 13 votes in favour, no votes against and abstentions by the US and Russia. Although abstaining, it was pivotal for Gaza that the US did not veto and therefore block the resolution. A vote had originally been expected on Monday but was delayed day after day as negotiations went on to try to get the pieces in place for the resolution to pass when it did finally come to the vote.
Israeli forces signalled they were widening their ground offensive with a new push into central Gaza on Friday, as the UN security council was expected to vote on a resolution to increase humanitarian aid to stave off the threat of famine. As hopes faded for an imminent breakthrough in talks this week in Egypt aimed at getting warring Israel and Hamas to agree a new truce, air strikes, artillery bombardments and fighting were reported across the Palestinian territory.
The US is assembling a multinational naval coalition to help safeguard commercial traffic from attacks by Yemen’s Houthi movement. On Thursday, the Pentagon said more than 20 countries had now agreed to participate in the group, known as Operation Prosperity Guardian. Some countries have not confirmed their participation, however, while others have said their efforts to help protect Red Sea commercial traffic will be as part of existing naval agreements rather than the new US-led operation.
The European Commission on Friday said it had adopted a €118m ($130m) aid package to support the Palestinian Authority. The commission said the aid would help pay salaries and pensions of civil servants in the West Bank, social allowances for vulnerable families and the payment for medical referrals to East Jerusalem hospitals.
Gaza health officials say more than 20,000 people have been killed in the war. Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said on Friday that it has documented 20,057 deaths in the fighting. It does not differentiate between combatant and civilian deaths. It has previously said that roughly two-thirds of the dead were women or minors.
The latest UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) assessment of the situation says that: “On 21 December, heavy Israeli bombardments from air, land, and sea, continued across most of the Gaza Strip. Intense ground operations and fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups continued, in most areas of Gaza, with the exception of Rafah. The firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups into Israel continued.”
The World Food Programme says its latest food security analysis for Gaza shows that the entire population of Gaza is in crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity.
The UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, Martin Griffiths, has said about a report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification: “This announcement about the risk of famine in Gaza is sobering but not surprising. We have been warning for weeks that, with such deprivation and destruction, each day that goes by will only bring more hunger, disease and despair to the people of Gaza.”
The Queen of Jordan, Rania Al Abdullah, has written an opinion piece in the Washington Post about the war. In it she says: “This has become an unequivocal humanitarian nightmare. With each passing day, the threshold of what is acceptable falls to new lows, setting a terrifying precedent for this and other wars to come.”
Israeli forces invaded the Palestinian Red Crescent Society’s ambulance centre in Jabaliya in northern Gaza on Thursday evening, according to the PRCS. The PRCS added that Israeli forces arrested the crews and paramedics and took them to an unknown location while children and women remain trapped inside the centre.
The US senator Bernie Sanders has called on the US to not provide “another $10bn to the rightwing extremist [Benjamin] Netanyahu government to continue their war against the Palestinian people.” In an address to the US Senate, Sanders said: “The Netanyahu government is continuing its military approach which is both immoral and in violation of international law.”
Canada’s immigration minister has announced temporary visas for people in Gaza with Canadian relatives, the Associated Press reports. In an announcement on Thursday, Marc Miller said that despite the offer of temporary visas, Canada cannot guarantee safe passage out of Gaza.
Cyprus’s president, Nikos Christodoulides, said on Thursday that his government was awaiting a green light from Israel to send a prepared package of desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza. His comments follow two days of talks between Cypriot and Israeli officials fine-tuning an initiative first proposed by the island republic in November. Christodoulides said: “We are waiting for final approval from Israel. We are ready.”
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The International Rescue Committee has released the following statement on the passage of the UN security council resolution regarding aid delivery into Gaza:
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) welcomes the demands for immediate, safe and unhindered humanitarian access through all available routes to Palestinians throughout Gaza, for international humanitarian law to be upheld and for the unconditional release of hostages contained in UNSC Resolution 2720. These are prerequisites for relief of the humanitarian suffering.
However, with more than 20,000 Palestinians killed and latest food insecurity numbers showing unprecedented threat of starvation in Gaza, much more is clearly needed…
We reiterate that the only way fully to protect Palestinian lives, enable a sufficient humanitarian response, and offer the best chance of hostage release, is to stop to the fighting. From a humanitarian point of view, the failure of the UNSC to demand an immediate and sustained ceasefire is unjustifiable.
“We will never be separated, we will never be divided. How to run our affairs, how to govern ourselves, this is the business of the Palestinian people,” said Riyad Mansour, Palestine’s ambassador to the UN.
He added that the Palestinian National Authority is doing everything it can to help Palestinians, including those in Gaza, as well as those in other parts of Palestine’s occupied territories.
“We are one. We will not be divided,” he reiterated, adding: “The governance, it is the issue for the Palestinian people to deal with.”
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During a press conference after the UN security council vote, Palestine’s ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said:
“We, the Arab group and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, declare that we are working for three humanitarian objectives.
“One, to stop this war against our people in the Gaza Strip which means ceasefire, ceasefire, ceasefire now.
“And then two is to have humanitarian assistance up to scale … We trust that the UN to be responsible for the verification of the thousands of truckloads [needed] in order to enter the Gaza Strip at [the] scale that’s asked for the by the [secretary general] so that it caters to the needs of the Palestinian people.
“And the third part is related to forced transfer outside of the Gaza Strip to Egypt, and that’s also another very clear concern of Egypt and all of us because we don’t want to have a second Nakba, and Egypt to be at the receiving end of more than 2 million Palestinian refugees.”
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David Cameron, the UK foreign secretary, hailed the UN resolution calling for more aid to enter into Gaza, saying the UK had consistently argued for more aid and had called on Israel to open more border crossings.
He said: “People across Gaza urgently need food, medicine and shelter.” Although negotiations on the resolution had been difficult, he claimed, “There is now greater unity of purpose about what needs to happen to relieve the humanitarian crisis.”
He stressed the resolution called for steps towards a sustainable ceasefire and said this must mean “Hamas is no longer there, able to threaten Israel with rocket attacks and other forms of terrorism.”
He said it also recognised “the importance of complying with international humanitarian law and the need to reduce civilian casualties. It also backed a two state solution which would be the best long term guarantee of security for Israel and the Palestinians.”
Lord Cameron returned from a visit to Egypt and Jordan this week, deeply concerned by Israel’s delays of aid into Gaza, doubtful that a maritime route from Cyprus into Gaza could be opened soon and worried that famine and mass disease could spread if aid is not stepped up urgently.
He is hoping that the passage of a UN security council resolution that establishes a UN monitoring mechanism to speed up the delivery of aid and a UN humanitarian coordinator for Gaza, much requested by the Arab states, will provide the UN with some further leverage over Israel to speed up the supply of aid.
The Foreign Office believes the test of the resolution will be whether aid checks are streamlined, and the long lines of aid convoys waiting to cross the border at Rafah border crossing and elsewhere start getting over the border more quickly.
The UK for instance has been concerned that border crossings are open only from 9am to 5pm. The UK has been the leading UN security council member calling for the re-opening of the Kerem Shalom border crossing, something that Israel accepted last Friday. But the head of the Kerem Shalom border crossing was killed on Thursday by an Israel bomb, Hamas government authorities said, raising questions about Israel’s commitment to ease the flow of aid.
The UK has also appointed its own humanitarian coordinator for Gaza, Mark Bryson-Richardson, who accompanied Cameron to Egypt’s aid coordinating post at El-Arish airport in northern Sinai.
The overall British position is that the dilution of the wording on the cessation of hostilities was always going to be necessary to get the US to abstain, and there are important proposals in the resolution that are worthwhile.
There had been concern right up until hours before the resolution was finally voted upon that Russia might veto the text on the basis that Moscow felt it had been excessively watered down to meet US objections to a call for a ceasefire. Although Russia accused the US of shameful acts of sabotage, it was not eager to antagonise the Arab delegations, and like the US, abstained.
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“Now that the security council has adopted a resolution, we look forward to the agencies and bodies of the UN to implement it without delay,” Abdelkhalek said.
“Agencies should make concerted efforts to draw up a comprehensive plan that will translate this resolution into a functioning and effective mechanism for coordination with the international community. This is a first step that should be followed by other steps,” he added.
“All efforts that aim at alleviating the humanitarian crisis and supporting the humanitarian condition will bear fruit only when the security council implement a binding resolution on a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire and the cessation of hostilities.”
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Egypt’s ambassador to the UN, Osama Abdelkhalek, is now speaking following the vote.
“Today’s resolution is a step on the right way to address the humanitarian impact … in Gaza and ensure that aid will be delivered … unhindered through a mechanism under the supervision by the UN,” he said.
“When it comes to the delivery of humanitarian support, Mr. President, we are looking forward for this resolution to support the efforts of the international community to provide aid to Gaza,” he added.
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“Enhancing UN monitoring or coordination of aid is not a cure all,” Israel’s ambassador to the UN said.
“And any enhancement of UN aid monitoring cannot be done at the expense of Israel security inspections. Israel not only has a right but an obligation to guarantee its security. This is why our mission to eliminate Hamas has capabilities has not changed. And this is why security inspections of aid will not change,” he added.
“Just as this council is committed to increasing aid, it should also be committed to blocking the smuggling of arms and transfer weapons to the Hamas terrorists. And just as this council is committed to ensuring aid reaches Gazan civilians, It should also be committed to ensuring the…aid…is not diverted…[to] terrorists who do not care about the civilian population,” he added.
“It should be focused on freeing the hostages. It should be focused on preventing Hamas from exploiting aid. It should be focused on ensuring Hamas can no longer expand the terror infrastructure. Any resolution adopted by this council should be focused primarily on these points and this is the council’s responsibility,” he added.
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Israel’s ambassador to the UN is now speaking.
“The 130 hostages, women, children and the elderly are still being held in Gaza and must not be allowed to become a footnote,” he said.
“Humanitarian aid is pouring into Gaza every single day. Yet the hostages being held by Hamas are not even allowed visits by the Red Cross. This is the most heinous war crime imaginable. The hostages must be at the top of this council’s agenda,” he added.
“This resolution is a step in the right direction it must be implemented and must be accompanied by massive pressure for an immediate ceasefire. I repeat, immediate ceasefire,” said Mansour.
“There is no way to stop the war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide underway, but [by] an immediate ceasefire. Ceasefire again. There is no way to start addressing the…humanitarian catastrophe, but [by] an immediate ceasefire. Ceasefire again. There is no way to release those held captives but [by] an immediate ceasefire,” he added.
“In the words of Israel’s closest allies, its indiscriminate bombing, its killing rage needs to stop,” Mansour said.
“Gaza is like a patient whose wounds you are trying to treat while the killer keeps shooting at them. You will need to stop the killer or you will never be able to save the patient,” he added.
“The draft resolution that the council voted on today is intended to help address this inhumane situation... We welcome the decision to establish a UN mechanism to accelerate the provision of humanitarian relief consignments to Gaza and call for its rapid implementation,” he added.
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“Israel is targetting not only the past and the present of our people, but indeed the future,” Mansour said in his emotional address.
“That is why it kills our doctors. engineers, pilots, academics, artists… This is why it is destroying our cities and towns, our universities and cultural institutions,” he added.
Mansour went on to add:
“The draft resolution presented by the United Arab Emirates is to allow them to conduct their sacred mission to assist civilians in need to save human lives as Israel, the occupying power, continues to ignore the global demands for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, and to deprive the Palestinian people of the humanitarian aid they desperately need.”
“What we are dealing with is an attempt at the destruction of our people and their displacement forever from their land. This is Israel’s goal, its true objective,” he said.
Palestine’s ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, is now speaking following the vote.
“The council is now meeting after over 20,000 Palestinians have been killed, almost half of them children. And 60,000 people have been wounded and 2 million Palestinians have been forcefully displaced.It is meeting as homes, shelters, schools, hospitals have been destroyed and as hunger and disease are spreading like wildfire,” he said.
“Mr. President, allow me at the onset to pay tribute to all the humanitarian and health care workers who are…struggling every single day to address and alleviate an occupation, a major humanitarian catastrophe of unprecedented scale,” he added.
“They are operating under conditions where no place and no one is safe, under widespread and indiscriminate bombing, where hospitals and shelters and ambulances are shelled and with minimal to no access to humanitarian supplies necessary to sustain and save lives,” he added.
Ecuador’s ambassador to the UN and president of the UN security council, José de la Gasca, is now speaking following the vote.
“It is a vital importance that humanitarian aid be delivered in sufficient quantities, and that there’d be adequate to inspections to ensure that those inspections are reliable,” he said.
“This resolution in no way contravenes the previous resolution 2712 and should be as an addition seen as an additional step towards the urgent need for a ceasefire,” he added, referring to the UN security council resolution passed last month which calls for humanitarian pauses and corridors in Gaza.
The UAE’s ambassador to the UN, Lanna Nusseibeh, is now speaking following the vote.
“We welcome its adoption and we’re grateful for this council support. We believe that the resolution begins to unblock life saving aid, whose denial has condemned more than half a million people in Gaza to famine,” she said.
“The text compels the international community to finally share in the burden that Egypt has been shouldering and it commits all of us to breaking the cruel blockades strangling Gaza for the last 16 years,” she added.
“The injustice of the occupation persists with the international community’s complicity. If you have a moral, national or political interest in saving the two-state solution, you must act now. This resolution gives us an opportunity to demonstrate that at the very least, the world will not tolerate the continued deprivation of the people of Gaza from basic necessities,” she added.
Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, is now speaking following the vote.
“Washington is playing an extremely underhanded game of forcing into the text an essential license for Israel to kill Palestinian civilians in Gaza under the pretext and record of creating conditions for cessation of hostilities,” he said.
“The United States goes around twisting arms in the region, not for the sake of peace as my American colleague asserts, but for the sake of ensuring the… short term interests of Washington,” he added.
“Colleagues, if this document weren’t supported by a number of Arab states, we would of course, have vetoed it. At the same time, we also know that a number of the co-sponsors including Arab states withdrew their co-sponsorship. But we consistently are of the view that the Arab world is itself able to take decisions and bear full responsibility for them. This is the only reason why we did not block this document,” he added.
Mozambique’s ambassador to the UN is now speaking.
“Mozambique’s vote in favour of the resolution reflects our strong commitment to the principle of protection of civilians currently in Gaza or during any conflict,” he said.
“We are mindful of the fact that this resolution is not a perfect text, but it clearly states the basic principles that must guide the parties and ought to be upheld by world at large,” he added.
“We therefore strongly believe that this resolution is an important step towards alleviating the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian civilian population throughout the Gaza Strip … By voting in favour, we emphasise the critical need for urgent humanitarian aid to reach civilians in Gaza during this ongoing conflict. The situation is dire and the immediate action is necessary to prevent further humanitarian suffering,” he added.
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France’s ambassador to the UN is now speaking.
“This resolution is … along the lines of France’s efforts to mobilise the international community in the face of the scale of the crisis,” she said.
“Only a ceasefire will allow for the reopening of unnecessary political horizon … International humanitarian law must be applied in all circumstances and that it must be possible to guarantee complete safe, unhindered access for humanitarian workers and humanitarian personnel as well as medical and hospital staff must be protected. This text must be applied in full,” she added.
“This council must also condemn in the strongest terms the terrorist attacks committed by Hamas and other terrorist groups on 7 October … It is incomprehensible that this council has still not been able to do so. It should do so, must do so, and law and morality require it,” she added.
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Switzerland’s ambassador to the UN, Pascale Baeriswyl, is now speaking.
“Switzerland voted in favour of the resolution, and we welcome its adoption … It’s essential that this council speak to protect civilians, the images of the Rafah crossing clearly showed us the civilian population is desperate. It needs the immediate support of the international community to survive,” she said.
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“It should be observed that that realisation of a ceasefire remains the overriding prerequisite,” the Chinese ambassador said.
“Only a ceasefire can prevent greater casualties of civilians including hostages. Only a ceasefire can prevent a regional conflict from spiralling out of control and only a ceasefire can prevent the prospects for a political settlement from being completely destroyed,” he added.
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China’s ambassador to the UN is now speaking.
“We expect urgent actions to be taken pursuant to this council resolution to expand humanitarian assistance to Gaza, including by making full use of the Kerem Shalom crossing and opening of additional crossings to ensure the safe and unimpeded entry of sufficient humanitarian supplies into Gaza,” he said.
“We urge Israel to immediately reverse course, cease its indiscriminate military attacks and stop its collective punishment of the population of Gaza as an occupying power. Israel has an obligation to safeguard the humanitarian needs for the population of Gaza, and to guarantee the safety of humanitarian workers in Gaza,” he added.
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Malta’s ambassador to the UN, Vanessa Frazier, is now speaking.
“The untenable situation requires our urgent attention. This is why we have voted in favour of this text,” she said.
“We reiterate that all parties must comply with their obligations under international law, including those regarding the protection of civilians and civilian sites for the accountability for those who violate them,” she added.
“We welcome the establishment of an aid-monitoring mechanism for Gaza as outlined in this resolution. However, its implementation must not add an additional barrier or slow down the … delivery of humanitarian assistance … We expect that the technical expertise and vast experience of the UN will direct the implementation of this mechanism in coordination with relevant states. Without this, the desperately needed UN humanitarian response will be placed in jeopardy,” she added.
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Brazil’s ambassador to the UN, Sérgio França Danese, is now speaking.
“Brazil welcomes today’s adoption. We thank the United Arab Emirates for tirelessly conducting and facilitating the negotiations,” he said.
“The time for humanitarian response to the suffering of civilians in Gaza is now, not tomorrow, not when this conflict finally ends. After more than 70 days of hostilities, the situation in Gaza is dire. The remaining hostages must be released immediately. Civilians and civilian facilities must be protected. This is not just a moral or ethical choice. It is an obligation under international humanitarian law, as is humanitarian access,” he added.
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“A ceasefire will not last if Hamas is still able to operate in tunnels and to launch rocket attacks,” Barbara Woodward, the UK ambassador to the UN, added.
“Our commitment to Israel’s security is firm as Israel deals with the threat from Hamas. Ultimately, we support a two-state solution that guarantees true security and stability for both Israeli and Palestinian people.
“We will keep working with all partners to deliver humanitarian response that meets the huge level of need.”
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The UK ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward, is now speaking after the vote.
“The United Kingdom welcomes the adoption of this resolution to get more aid into Gaza,” she said.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we are clear that the resolution is without prejudice to the rights and obligations of parties under international humanitarian law,” she continued.
“The adoption is an important signal of the security council’s commitment. Our actions today and in the future must help ensure that the horror of 7 October never happens again. We unequivocally condemn acts of terror and support Israel’s right to self-defence,” she added.
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“Today this council spoke out. But we know that only progress on the ground can turn these words into action, so the United States will continue to work with the UN, with humanitarian groups and countries in the region to get more humanitarian aid into Gaza to secure the release of hostages and to work towards a lasting peace,” the US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said.
“There is no time to waste. We must find a path forward to in the misery we’re seeing,” she continued. “We must work together to alleviate this tremendous suffering once and for all.”
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Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, also said that the US was “deeply dissapointed, appalled … that the council was not able to condemn Hamas’s horrific terrorist attack on 7 October”.
“I can’t understand why some council members are standing in the way and why they refuse to condemn these evils unequivocally … I will never understand why some council members have remained silent in the face of such evil,” she added.
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Speaking after the vote, the US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said: “This resolution speaks to the severity of this crisis and it calls on us to do more.”
“This resolution puts the weight of the security council behind these efforts and bolsters them by calling for the appointment of a senior UN official who will work to expedite the delivery of humanitarian aid at scale and in a sustained way,” she added.
Updated
UNSC passes resolution on Gaza aid delivery
The UN security council has passed the resolution on Gaza aid delivery with 13 votes in favour, no votes against and two abstentions.
Russia and the US abstained from voting on the resolution.
Updated
The Russian ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, is now speaking.
He criticised the draft resolution, saying: “By signing off on this, the council would essentially be giving the Israeli armed forces complete freedom of movement for further clearing of the Gaza Strip, and anyone who votes in favour of the text as it is currently … would bear responsibility for that essentially becoming complicit in the destruction of Gaza.
“Moreover, the text of the draft has lost a reference to condemnations of all indiscriminate attacks on civilians. What signal … this send[s] to the international community [is] that the security council is giving Israel a green light for a war crimes,” he added.
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“The resolution tasks the secretary general will be appointing a senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator,” said Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE’s ambassador to the UN.
“Their mandate will be to monitor, verify and facilitate humanitarian relief to Gaza and the resolution gives them the necessary resources and equipment,” she added.
“The coordinator will establish a mechanism for accelerating the delivery of aid and we expect the initial report on its work within 20 days,” she continued.
“This council has a responsibility to ensure that [Palestinians] are not victimised twice over. We have extensively negotiated and tried to find language that meets everyone’s concerns, but also addresses this challenge with a practical response,” she said.
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“The purpose of this text is very simple. It responds with action to the dire humanitarian situation on the ground, and the Palestinian people bearing the brunt of this conflict, while protecting those who are trying to deliver life-saving aid,” said the UAE’s ambassador to the UN, Lana Nusseibeh.
“It demands the urgent release of the hostages and for humanitarian access to address their medical needs … It demands that the parties to the conflict allow and facilitate the use of all available routes to the Gaza Strip for the provision of humanitarian assistance,” she added.
“Current deconfliction efforts are clearly not working if 136 UN workers have lost their lives because of it. This is why the text reaffirms that UN humanitarian personnel premises and consignments are protected and must not be attacked,” she continued.
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“Things cannot possibly get any worse,” the UAE’s ambassador to the UN, Lana Nusseibeh, said in her statement to the UN security council on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
“There must be an international response … The text is the product of extensive consultations and engagement between members of this council and concerned parties, in particular Egypt and Palestine, for whose efforts we are especially grateful,” she said, referring to the draft resolution.
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The UN security council is now in session.
We will bring you the latest updates on the vote surrounding the UN security council resolution on aid delivery into Gaza.
Only gauze and iodine are available for Palestinian patients injured by Israeli strikes at a Gaza field hospital.
Reuters reports:
All Palestinian surgeon Bashir al-Hourani has to work with in the central Gaza school where he helps run a field clinic amid Israel’s pounding offensive is gauze and disinfectant as he treats walking wounded turned away from overstretched hospitals.
“We don’t have anything else,” he said, showing a bottle of iodine he was using to wash the long operating scar running down the torso and stomach of an injured man.
“This patient should be in hospital but because of overcrowding he was transferred to the field hospital,” he said.
“We have dozens like this patient. We have children it’s hard to treat. We change their dressings one day and the next we find infection because there is no sterilisation, there are no specialised places. There are no bin bags,” he said.
Al-Sayedah Khadija school is located in Deir al-Balah, in the centre of the tiny crowded Palestinian enclave that Israeli forces have been besieging, bombarding and in recent weeks invading in response to a deadly Hamas attack on 7 October.
The war has killed more than 20,000 people according to local health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza and wounded 50,000 more, all while hospitals have been put out of action and medical supplies nearly exhausted.
While some aid has entered Gaza in recent weeks via Egypt, it has been hard to distribute much beyond the immediate border area and hospitals elsewhere in the enclave are barely able to function, relief agencies say.
Updated
In an interview with Sky News, UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma described the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza as a result of Israeli attacks on the strip, saying:
People are hungry. People are starving. People are resorting to only having one meal a day, if at all.
Some parts of Gaza, this is not even the case. Some people go on for days without food.
We ourselves at UNRWA are sometimes forced into decreas[ing] our delivery of food to one bottle a day and a can of tuna for a family of six or seven.
"People are hungry. People are starving. People are resorting to only having one meal a day, if at all."
— Sky News (@SkyNews) December 22, 2023
UNRWA's @JulietteTouma tells Sky News that "some people go on for days without food" in parts of Gaza.https://t.co/PAiZ4D1jU3
📺 Sky 501, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/tQxoOTQYGM
Updated
The Israel-Gaza war is pushing Gaza towards famine, the United Nations warned before Friday’s expected security council vote on a resolution to boost aid to the Palestinian territory but not call for a ceasefire.
At the few hospitals in Gaza still functioning, more wounded arrived after renewed Israeli strikes. In the Gaza City district of Jabalia, a strike on a house killed 16 people and wounded more than 50, the health ministry in Gaza said, according to the AFP news agency.
Northern Gaza no longer has any functioning hospitals, and only nine of the territory’s original 36 hospitals are still partly functioning, the World Health Organization has said.
With aid workers running out of words to describe conditions in Gaza, the UN security council has been locked all week in negotiations over how to phrase a resolution about the war.
The latest draft seen by AFP calls for “urgent steps to immediately allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and also for creating the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”
It does not call for an immediate end to fighting. Backed by its ally the United States, Israel has opposed any reference to a “ceasefire”.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US ambassador to the UN, told reporters that Washington would support the resolution if it “is put forward as is”.
Updated
People fleeing the Israel-Gaza war will receive free healthcare under an Australian initiative, amid calls for other states to follow suit.
The state of Victoria’s health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, will on Saturday announce people fleeing the conflict – who aren’t eligible for Medicare due to their visa – will be able to access essential healthcare, specialised mental health support and language services.
New South Wales announced earlier in December that it would provide free hospital emergency care, some surgery and outpatient services, hospital tests and limited emergency dental care, as well as maternity care, mental health care, ambulances and the use of interpreters, to people fleeing the conflict.
But the Victorian programme will go further. It will include care in public hospitals, public dental and maternal child health, as well as services from community health providers, priority primary care centres, local mental health and wellbeing hubs and specialised refugee and asylum seeker health services.
Updated
Since 7 October the world has been horrified by the gruesome fighting between Israel and Gaza. But the war could still get much worse.
Iran’s proxy in Yemen, the Houthis, have been firing missiles and drones at commercial shipping and naval vessels and at southern Israel for weeks now. Global markets are spooked as the danger to shipping through the Bab al-Mandeb strait rises.
Pressure is mounting on the Biden administration to strike back against Iran and its Houthi partner to stop these attacks. Advocates of striking back hard think this will deter a larger war. But if the US goes too far, it could end up entering a war it badly needs to avoid. The horror of the conflict between Israel and Gaza is already bad enough, but a larger conflagration would be a catastrophe for the US, Israel and people throughout the region.
A broader war could span Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Israel and Iran itself. It would come at an already precarious moment in global security when the US is struggling to supply more aid to Ukraine and manage rising tension in east Asia over Taiwan and the South China Sea. Regional and global effects would be unavoidable and could last decades, plunging the US back into large-scale Middle East conflicts it can ill-afford.
A US dual national who was one of about 240 people held hostage by Hamas in southern Israel has died in captivity in the Gaza Strip, a group representing hostages’ families said on Friday.
Gadi Haggai, 73, also held Israeli citizenship, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said. Hamas continues to hold his body, they say.
Drawing on various information sources, an Israeli government-appointed committee has been declaring some hostages dead in absentia, Reuters reports.
Hamas has generally not confirmed these accounts, but has warned that “time is running out” for the hostages as the war nears its 12th week.
According to an official Israeli tally, 129 people remain held in Gaza after the rest were repatriated in a November truce or recovered during a military offensive. Of those still in Gaza, 22 are dead, the Israeli government says.
The forum said that between five and 10 of the hostages hold US citizenship. The US embassy had no immediate comment.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, held a telephone call with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, on Friday to discuss ways to de-escalate the conflict in Gaza as well as humanitarian relief efforts, the Kremlin said.
It said the two men agreed that Abbas would visit Russia at a date to be agreed, Reuters reports.
Summary
Israeli forces signalled they were widening their ground offensive with a new push into central Gaza on Friday, as the UN security council was expected to vote on a resolution to increase humanitarian aid to stave off the threat of famine. As hopes faded for an imminent breakthrough in talks this week in Egypt aimed at getting warring Israel and Hamas to agree a new truce, air strikes, artillery bombardments and fighting were reported across the Palestinian territory.
The US is assembling a multinational naval coalition to help safeguard commercial traffic from attacks by Yemen’s Houthi movement. On Thursday, the Pentagon said more than 20 countries had now agreed to participate in the group, known as Operation Prosperity Guardian. Some countries have not confirmed their participation, however, while others have said their efforts to help protect Red Sea commercial traffic will be as part of existing naval agreements rather than the new US-led operation.
The European Commission on Friday said it had adopted a €118m ($130m) aid package to support the Palestinian Authority. The commission said the aid would help pay salaries and pensions of civil servants in the West Bank, social allowances for vulnerable families and the payment for medical referrals to East Jerusalem hospitals.
Gaza health officials say more than 20,000 people have been killed in the war. Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said on Friday that it has documented 20,057 deaths in the fighting. It does not differentiate between combatant and civilian deaths. It has previously said that roughly two-thirds of the dead were women or minors.
The US has declared it is ready to support a UN security council resolution intended to boost the flow of humanitarian supplies into Gaza after a week of negotiations and substantial amendments, including the removal of a call for an “urgent suspension of hostilities”.
The vote is now delayed until Friday, it’s understood. The Reuters news agency says the vote was delayed after Russia (also a veto power in the UN security council) and some other council members complained during closed-door talks about the amendments made to appease the US, according to diplomats.
The US had also been wary of a reference in the draft resolution to a cessation of hostilities, according to diplomats. The US and Israel oppose a ceasefire, believing it would benefit only Hamas. Washington instead supports pauses in fighting to protect civilians and free hostages taken by Hamas. The draft resolution now has blunted language to have the council call for “urgent steps to immediately allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and also for creating the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities”.
The latest UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) assessment of the situation says that: “On 21 December, heavy Israeli bombardments from air, land, and sea, continued across most of the Gaza Strip. Intense ground operations and fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups continued, in most areas of Gaza, with the exception of Rafah. The firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups into Israel continued.”
The World Food Programme says its latest food security analysis for Gaza shows that the entire population of Gaza is in crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity.
The UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, Martin Griffiths, has said about a report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification: “This announcement about the risk of famine in Gaza is sobering but not surprising. We have been warning for weeks that, with such deprivation and destruction, each day that goes by will only bring more hunger, disease and despair to the people of Gaza.”
The Queen of Jordan, Rania Al Abdullah, has written an opinion piece in the Washington Post about the war. In it she says: “This has become an unequivocal humanitarian nightmare. With each passing day, the threshold of what is acceptable falls to new lows, setting a terrifying precedent for this and other wars to come.”
Israeli forces invaded the Palestinian Red Crescent Society’s ambulance centre in Jabaliya in northern Gaza on Thursday evening, according to the PRCS. The PRCS added that Israeli forces arrested the crews and paramedics and took them to an unknown location while children and women remain trapped inside the centre.
The US senator Bernie Sanders has called on the US to not provide “another $10bn to the rightwing extremist [Benjamin] Netanyahu government to continue their war against the Palestinian people.” In an address to the US Senate, Sanders said: “The Netanyahu government is continuing its military approach which is both immoral and in violation of international law.”
Canada’s immigration minister has announced temporary visas for people in Gaza with Canadian relatives, the Associated Press reports. In an announcement on Thursday, Marc Miller said that despite the offer of temporary visas, Canada cannot guarantee safe passage out of Gaza.
Cyprus’s president, Nikos Christodoulides, said on Thursday that his government was awaiting a green light from Israel to send a prepared package of desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza. His comments follow two days of talks between Cypriot and Israeli officials fine-tuning an initiative first proposed by the island republic in November. Christodoulides said: “We are waiting for final approval from Israel. We are ready.”
Updated
The European Commission on Friday said it had adopted a €118m ($130m) aid package to support the Palestinian Authority.
The commission said the aid would help pay salaries and pensions of civil servants in the West Bank, social allowances for vulnerable families and the payment for medical referrals to East Jerusalem hospitals.
Updated
The US is assembling a multinational naval coalition to help safeguard commercial traffic from attacks by Yemen’s Houthi movement.
On Thursday, the Pentagon said more than 20 countries had now agreed to participate in the group, known as Operation Prosperity Guardian.
Some countries have not confirmed their participation, however, while others have said their efforts to help protect Red Sea commercial traffic will be as part of existing naval agreements rather than the new US-led operation.
The lack of details and clarity over what countries are doing has added to confusion for shipping companies, some of which have been re-routing vessels away from the area after the attacks, which the Houthis say are a response to Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip.
Updated
Israel broadens Gaza assault ahead of security council aid vote
Israeli forces signalled they were widening their ground offensive with a new push into central Gaza on Friday, as the UN security council was expected to vote on a resolution to increase humanitarian aid to stave off the threat of famine.
As hopes faded for an imminent breakthrough in talks this week in Egypt aimed at getting warring Israel and Hamas to agree a new truce, air strikes, artillery bombardments and fighting were reported across the Palestinian territory.
Israel’s military on Friday ordered residents of Al-Bureij, in central Gaza, to move south immediately, indicating a new focus of the ground assault that has already devastated the north of the Strip and made a series of incursions in the south, Reuters reported.
Updated
Updated
In case you missed it earlier, the US has declared it is ready to support a UN security council resolution intended to boost the flow of humanitarian supplies into Gaza after a week of negotiations and substantial amendments, including the removal of a call for an “urgent suspension of hostilities”.
A vote on the resolution was postponed for a fourth day in a row until Friday, after negotiations late into the evening, but the US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said the US and Arab states had come up with an amended version Washington could support.
“We’re ready to vote on it. And it’s a resolution that will bring humanitarian assistance to those in need,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “It will support the priority that Egypt has in ensuring that we put a mechanism on the ground that will support humanitarian assistance, and we’re ready to move forward.”
Summary of the day so far
It’s coming up to 9am in Gaza and Tel Aviv and here are the latest developments:
Health officials in the Gaza Strip say more than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war. Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said on Friday that it has documented 20,057 deaths in the fighting. It does not differentiate between combatant and civilian deaths. It has previously said that roughly two-thirds of the dead were women or minors.
The US has declared it is ready to support a UN security council resolution intended to boost the flow of humanitarian supplies into Gaza after a week of negotiations and substantial amendments, including the removal of a call for an “urgent suspension of hostilities”.
The vote is now delayed until Friday, it’s understood. The Reuters news agency says the vote was delayed after Russia (also a veto power in the UN security council) and some other council members complained during closed-door talks about the amendments made to appease the US, according to diplomats.
The US had also been wary of a reference in the draft resolution to a cessation of hostilities, according to diplomats. The US and Israel oppose a ceasefire, believing it would benefit only Hamas. Washington instead supports pauses in fighting to protect civilians and free hostages taken by Hamas. The draft resolution now has blunted language to have the council call for “urgent steps to immediately allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and also for creating the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities”.
The latest UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) assessment of the situation says that: “On 21 December, heavy Israeli bombardments from air, land, and sea, continued across most of the Gaza Strip. Intense ground operations and fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups continued, in most areas of Gaza, with the exception of Rafah. The firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups into Israel continued.”
The World Food Programme says its latest food security analysis for Gaza shows that the entire population of Gaza is in crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity.
The UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, Martin Griffiths, has said about a report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification: “This announcement about the risk of famine in Gaza is sobering but not surprising. We have been warning for weeks that, with such deprivation and destruction, each day that goes by will only bring more hunger, disease and despair to the people of Gaza.”
The Queen of Jordan, Rania Al Abdullah, has written an opinion piece in the Washington Post about the war. In it she says: “This has become an unequivocal humanitarian nightmare. With each passing day, the threshold of what is acceptable falls to new lows, setting a terrifying precedent for this and other wars to come.”
Israeli forces invaded the Palestinian Red Crescent Society’s ambulance centre in Jabaliya in northern Gaza on Thursday evening, according to the PRCS. The PRCS added that Israeli forces arrested the crews and paramedics and took them to an unknown location while children and women remain trapped inside the centre.
The US senator Bernie Sanders has called on the US to not provide “another $10bn to the rightwing extremist [Benjamin] Netanyahu government to continue their war against the Palestinian people.” In an address to the US Senate, Sanders said: “The Netanyahu government is continuing its military approach which is both immoral and in violation of international law.”
Canada’s immigration minister has announced temporary visas for people in Gaza with Canadian relatives, the Associated Press reports. In an announcement on Thursday, Marc Miller said that despite the offer of temporary visas, Canada cannot guarantee safe passage out of Gaza.
Cyprus’s president, Nikos Christodoulides, said on Thursday that his government was awaiting a green light from Israel to send a prepared package of desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza. His comments follow two days of talks between Cypriot and Israeli officials fine-tuning an initiative first proposed by the island republic in November. Christodoulides said: “We are waiting for final approval from Israel. We are ready.”
Updated
Let’s get some more detail from the latest update coming out of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
It outlines the situation in Rafah for people who are internally displaced:
Inflow of IDPs to Rafah governorate continued on 20 December. As shelters in Rafah city have exceeded their capacity significantly, most newly arriving IDPs have settled in the streets and in empty spaces across the city. Rafah governorate has become the most densely populated area in the Gaza Strip, with hundreds of thousands of IDPs squeezed into extremely overcrowded spaces and in dire living conditions. Population density is assessed to now exceed 12,000 people per square kilometre, a fourfold increase prior to the escalation.
Thousands of people line up before aid distribution centres in need of food, water, shelter, and protection, amid the absence of latrines and adequate water and sanitation facilities in informal displacement sites and makeshift shelters.
This situation is compounded by the cold winter and rain over the last week, which have flooded tents and other makeshift shelters.
Guardian journalists Nedal Samir Hamdouna and Aseel Mousa in Gaza, and Julian Borger in Jerusalem have written this special piece about “WCNSFs” – which means “wounded child, no surviving family”.
It is about the acronym used by aid workers and reflects the reality of the conflict, in which 40% of casualties are believed to be minors.
When Yousef al-Dawi tries to go to sleep in his aunt’s house in Rafah, he thinks about resting his head in his mother’s hands, his father taking him on outings, and most of all, learning to swim with his brother, Mahmoud – taking himself away to a world that no longer exists.
Read the rest of this moving piece here:
Updated
In Israel, families of the hostages that remain in Gaza have held a vigil in Tel Aviv. Here are some of those images:
Here are some of the latest images of displaced Palestinians in Gaza who have fled the fighting taking place in other parts of the territory:
The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a number of hours ago on X about meeting the families of soldiers who have died in the Israel-Gaza war. As part of a thread, he said the representatives had asked if fighting could be conducted while safeguarding the lives of Israeli soldiers:
"There will not be another round. There is national consensus that embraces the entire people: There needs to be victory – until the goals are completed.
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) December 21, 2023
This is a difficult and brutal war, and you know how difficult it is. We will do everything to safeguard the soldiers' lives" pic.twitter.com/VjL1BDXbVJ
More than 20,000 Palestinians killed in war, say Gaza health officials
Health officials in the Gaza Strip say more than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war.
The figure amounts to nearly 1% of the territory’s prewar population, Associated Press reports.
Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry said Friday that it has documented 20,057 deaths in the fighting.
It does not differentiate between combatant and civilian deaths. It has previously said that roughly two-thirds of the dead were women or minors.
Here’s video of some of what the US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield had to say a number of hours ago in New York.
I won’t share how I will vote, but it will be a resolution, if the resolution is put forward as is – that we can support.
US ready to support UN security council resolution on Gaza
The US has declared it is ready to support a UN security council resolution intended to boost the flow of humanitarian supplies into Gaza after a week of negotiations and substantial amendments, including the removal of a call for an “urgent suspension of hostilities”.
A vote on the resolution was postponed for a fourth day in a row until Friday, after negotiations late into the evening, but the US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said the US and Arab states had come up with an amended version Washington could support.
“We’re ready to vote on it. And it’s a resolution that will bring humanitarian assistance to those in need,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “It will support the priority that Egypt has in ensuring that we put a mechanism on the ground that will support humanitarian assistance, and we’re ready to move forward.”
It was not clear whether other council members, particularly Russia, would accept the changes. A postponement of a vote until Friday was agreed to allow UN missions to consult their capitals.
Read the rest of our world affairs editor’s report here:
Updated
Welcome and opening summary
It’s 6:47am on Friday morning in Gaza and Tel Aviv, and just after sunrise there. Welcome to our latest blog on the Israel-Gaza war. I’m Reged Ahmad and I’ll be with you for the next while.
The US says it will support an amended UN resolution aimed at increasing aid into Gaza. The US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield has been speaking at the security council in New York and said “I just want to share with you that 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. 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.”
More on that shortly but first, here’s a summary of the main developments so far:
The vote is now delayed until Friday, it’s understood. The Reuters news agency says the vote was delayed after Russia (also a veto power in the UN security council) and some other council members complained during closed-door talks about the amendments made to appease the US, according to diplomats.
The US had also been wary of a reference in the draft resolution to a cessation of hostilities, according to diplomats. The US and Israel oppose a ceasefire, believing it would only benefit Hamas. Washington instead supports pauses in fighting to protect civilians and free hostages taken by Hamas. The draft resolution now has blunted language to have the council call for “urgent steps to immediately allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and also for creating the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”
In the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) latest assessment of the situation it says that “On 21 December, heavy Israeli bombardments from air, land, and sea, continued across most of the Gaza Strip. Intense ground operations and fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups continued, in most areas of Gaza, with the exception of Rafah. The firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups into Israel continued”
The World Food Programme says its latest food security analysis for Gaza, shows that the entire population of Gaza is in crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity.
UN undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths has said about a report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification “This announcement about the risk of famine in Gaza is sobering but not surprising. We have been warning for weeks that, with such deprivation and destruction, each day that goes by will only bring more hunger, disease and despair to the people of Gaza.”
The Queen of Jordan, Rania Al Abdullah has written an opinion piece in the Washington Post about the war. In it she says: This has become an unequivocal humanitarian nightmare. With each passing day, the threshold of what is acceptable falls to new lows, setting a terrifying precedent for this and other wars to come.
Israeli forces invaded the Palestinian Red Crescent Society’s ambulance center in Jabalia in northern Gaza on Thursday evening, according to the PRCS. The PRCS added that Israeli forces arrested the crews and paramedics and took them to an unknown location while children and women remain trapped inside the center.
US senator Bernie Sanders has called on the US to not provide “another $10bn to the rightwing extremist [Benjamin] Netanyahu government to continue their war against the Palestinian people.” In an address to the US senate, Sanders said: “The Netanyahu government is continuing its military approach which is both immoral and in violation of international law.”
Canada’s immigration minister has announced temporary visas for people in Gaza with Canadian relatives, the Associated Press reports. In an announcement on Thursday, the immigration minister, Marc Miller, said that despite the offer of temporary visas, Canada cannot guarantee safe passage out of Gaza.
Cyprus’s president, Nikos Christodoulides, said on Thursday that his government was awaiting a green light from Israel to send a prepared package of desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza. His comments follow two days of talks between Cypriot and Israeli officials fine-tuning an initiative first proposed by the island republic in November. Christodoulides said: “We are waiting for final approval from Israel. We are ready.”
Updated
