The United Nations Security Council has once again postponed a vote on an important draft resolution on humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip, as the United States continues to oppose certain aspects of the resolution.
The vote has been postponed for the fourth time in a week, with the U.S. objecting to the statement “Cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas” in the draft resolution and only agreeing to include the statement “suspension of hostilities.” The U.S. has also expressed skepticism about whether aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip are solely transporting “humanitarian supplies.” Additionally, the U.S. opposes the draft’s proposal to establish a United Nations mechanism in the Gaza Strip to oversee the delivery of all humanitarian relief supplies.
Diplomatic sources have reported that the U.S. is demanding “substantial” modifications to the draft text in order to gain its support.
The delay in the vote comes at a critical time, as a report released by the United Nations and 23 humanitarian agencies revealed that 2.2 million people in the Palestinian Gaza Strip are currently experiencing “food crises or worse conditions,” with over 576,000 reaching catastrophic levels of hunger. The World Food Program reported that 90% of Gazans often go without food for a whole day due to obstacles to aid entry into Gaza.
The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has also issued a statement, reporting that the death toll caused by Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip since the outbreak of a new round of conflict on October 7 has reached 20,000, with over 52,000 people injured and more than 6,700 missing.
The Security Council representatives were still in closed-door consultations on the text of the draft resolution as of the evening of the 21st in New York, according to the United Nations website.
The U.S.’s continued opposition has highlighted the ongoing challenges in providing humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip amid the conflict between Palestine and Israel.