(United Nations) The UN Security Council was still trying to find a compromise on Thursday before a vote postponed several times on a resolution whose latest version simply calls for “urgent measures” to allow access for humanitarian aid in Gaza.
A vote is still hoped for Thursday evening on a new text, largely weakened, which no longer calls for an “urgent suspension of hostilities” to allow the delivery of aid, according to the latest version seen by AFP.
The Council, widely criticized for its inaction since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, has been negotiating a resolution sponsored by the United Arab Emirates for several days.
The vote initially planned for Monday was postponed multiple times, notably on Wednesday at the request of the Americans who had vetoed on December 8 a previous text calling for a “humanitarian ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip, shelled by Israeli forces in retaliation for the bloody and unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7.
“The gap is narrowing,” assured Thursday afternoon the Ambassador of the Emirates to the UN, Lana Zaki Nusseibeh.
PHOTO MANDEL NGAN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
“We are actively working with our partners at the UN on the resolution and its content,” White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby also declared Thursday in Washington, disputing the idea that the United States is “particularly isolated”.
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, the Council has only managed to break its silence once, with the November 15 resolution calling for “humanitarian pauses”. He rejected five other texts in two months, two of which were due to American vetoes, the last on December 8.
The United States then blocked, despite unprecedented pressure from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the call for a “humanitarian ceasefire”, also deemed unacceptable by Israel.
Hamas not named
While the UN has warned of the “unprecedented” food insecurity suffered by the inhabitants of Gaza now threatened by famine, most members of the Council seem to want to avoid a new veto.
Under American pressure, the wording of the call aimed at an interruption of hostilities was this time deleted.
The reference to an “urgent and lasting cessation of hostilities” present in the first text has disappeared, as has the less direct request in the following version for an “urgent suspension of hostilities”.
The text on the table late Thursday, seen by AFP, calls for “urgent measures to immediately allow safe and unhindered access and also to create the conditions for a lasting cessation of hostilities.”
Negotiations have focused in recent hours on the request for the establishment of an aid monitoring mechanism, ensured “exclusively” by the UN, to guarantee the “humanitarian” nature of deliveries.
Israel, which wants to maintain its control over humanitarian convoys, opposed this mechanism and the reference to the exclusive control of the UN disappeared from the last text consulted by AFP.
Another contentious point, the absence once again in the text of a condemnation – and even of the name – of Hamas, castigated by Israel and the United States.
After the October 7 attack which, according to Israeli authorities, left around 1,140 dead, mostly civilians, Israel vowed to “annihilate” Hamas, shelling Palestinian territory, besieging it and carrying out a vast ground operation. since October 27.
The Hamas government announced Wednesday that Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip had left 20,000 dead since the start of the war, including at least 8,000 children and 6,200 women.