According to CNN, the UN Security Council has adopted a resolution that calls for a number of humanitarian pauses in Gaza. This is a significant development. In the Wednesday session, twelve states voted in favor of the resolution, with the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom abstaining from the vote.
The adopted resolution emphasises the need for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip for a sufficient number of days to enable, consistent with international humanitarian law, the full, rapid, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access for United Nations humanitarian agencies and their implementing partners,” as reported by CNN.
Human Rights Watch welcomed the resolution, characterising it as a rare and powerful message to Israel, Hamas, and other armed groups.
Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch, stated, “The UN Security Council just sent a rare and powerful message to Israel, Hamas and other armed groups that compliance with international humanitarian law is non-negotiable. So far, there has been widespread disregard for civilians by all parties. That the US finally stopped paralyzing the council on Israel and Palestine so this resolution on the plight of children in Gaza could move forward should be a wake-up call to Israeli authorities that global concern, even among its allies, is strong.”
Brazil had proposed a similar draft resolution at the UNSC that would have called for a humanitarian pause in Gaza, but the United States had vetoed it about a month prior. The draft demanded that all parties abide by international law, denounced Hamas’s attacks on Israel, and called for the release of hostages. US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield clarified after the recent vote that the US wanted more time for actual diplomacy to take place.
