Hamas considers UN resolution on humanitarian aid to Gaza “insufficient”

The Palestinian Islamic group Hamas this Friday considered “insufficient” the resolution approved by the UN Security Council to promote the sending of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, plunged into an unprecedented humanitarian crisis due to the war with Israel.

“We consider that the resolution (…) It is an insufficient step and does not meet the demands of the catastrophic situation created by the Zionist military terrorist machine in the Gaza Strip, especially because did not include an international resolution to end the genocidal war waged by the occupying terrorist entity against our people“, Hamas said in a statement.

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“The US Administration worked hard to strip this resolution of its essence and issue it in this weak formula, which allows the fascist occupation to complete the mission of destruction, massacre and terrorism in the Gaza Strip, defying the will of the international community”, he added.

The Islamic group, which triggered the war on October 7 with an attack on Israel that left around 1,200 dead and 250 hostages, considered that “it is the duty of the UN Security Council to force the occupation (Israel) to bring aid in sufficient quantities to all areas of the Gaza Strip, especially the northern areas.”

The UN Security Council approved this Friday a resolution to promote the sending of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, after a week of intense negotiations.

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The initiative, presented by United Arab Emirates (United Arab Emirates), had to be rewritten several times due to objections from the United States, which has veto power in the organization and which ultimately abstained, as did Russia.

The text asks the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, to appoint a special coordinator to monitor and verify the sending of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave.

Israel is receiving increasing pressure from the international community to agree to another truce, but Hamas refuses any agreement that does not mean a permanent cessation of hostilities, while the Israeli government is determined to continue the offensive until Hamas is destroyed.

A soldier operates as smoke rises in the Gaza Strip, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, on December 19, 2023. (Israeli Army Photo/AFP) (-/)

The resolution approved this Friday was in danger until the last moment. Shortly before the vote, the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vasili Nebenzia, proposed an amendment to recover a mention in the original text of the need to immediately halt hostilities to allow the entry of humanitarian aid.

This phrase was replaced, after US objections, with a somewhat vaguer mention of the need to take “urgent measures” towards the cessation of hostilities.

Hit by Israeli bombings, the Strip accounts for more than 20,000 deaths and 53,320 injured, most of them children, women and the elderly, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health.

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Furthermore, it is experiencing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis due to shortages of drinking water, food, medicine, electricity and fuel, in addition to the collapse of hospitals and the outbreak of epidemics in the middle of winter.

Although Israel allows the entry of trucks with humanitarian aid, this happens little by little and in insufficient quantities for the 1.9 million displaced people – almost the entire population – who live in overcrowded conditions, in levels of hunger and without protection. of winter.

Qatar, Egypt and the United States managed to broker a seven-day truce in November that allowed the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, as well as the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Source: Elcomercio