Ceasefire in Gaza slipping further away: Half a million people are in danger of starvation

The ceasefire in Gaza is becoming increasingly distant and hopes for a short-term cessation of hostilities are diminishing. Discussions are continuing in the United Nations Security Council to prepare an Emirati resolution, which has been on the table since last Monday: the management of humanitarian aid is at the center of the negotiations, while the suspension of hostilities remains in the background after Hamas announced this resolution. There will be any terms to be negotiated at the end of Israeli military operations.

Security Council vote postponed again

The vote at the UN headquarters in New York has been postponed four times since the beginning of the week at the request of the United States. In the session held behind closed doors yesterday, some countries expressed their dissatisfaction with the text, which will dilute the issue of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, while ambassadors also requested more time to consult with their own governments. The draft, prepared as a result of intense negotiations between the United States, the Arab Emirates and Egypt, asks Israel to immediately allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access to Gaza and create the necessary conditions for a sustainable cessation of violence. There is no more talk of an immediate cessation of violence. Following the new regulation, the USA announced that it would support the text. However, it was clear from the beginning that the USA would not vote for such a text.

The US ambassador to the UN said that after “working hard and diligently over the last week” with Egypt and the United Arab Emirates on the Gaza resolution, Washington was ready to “support the draft as written”. It’s unclear at this point what could prevent repeated votes in the United Nations Security Council. The fear of a US veto is still alive after the examples of recent weeks. Washington wants Israel’s demands to be respected, such as checking the contents of trucks heading to the Strip to prevent Hamas from receiving military aid and missile fuel.

New journalistic indiscretions reveal the dynamics of the diplomatic and political game that burdens Palestinian civilians. Benjamin Netanyahu hoped that the United States would pressure Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to welcome Gazan Palestinians displaced by the conflict in the Strip due to hostilities between Israel and Hamas, triggered by Egypt’s horrific attack on Israel on October 7. According to the Washington Post, the Israeli prime minister asked Joe Biden to pressure Cairo to accept some of the population in the Palestinian region on its territory for the duration of the conflict. An option that Egypt did not consider.

human hell

Although diplomatic work is still at a standstill, the humanitarian situation in the Strip is deteriorating. 390 Palestinians died and 734 people were injured in Israel’s attacks on Gaza in the last 48 hours. This was announced by the Hamas-led Strip Ministry of Health, which brought the number of victims to 20,057 and the number of injured to 53,320 since October 7. The UN condemns the worsening food crisis, where more than half a million people (a quarter of the total population) are at risk of starvation. According to the data of the report, the difficulty of the public in accessing food has exceeded what has been experienced in Afghanistan and Yemen in recent years. The report cited by the Guardian warns that the risk of famine “increases day by day” and that the hunger is caused by insufficient aid to Gaza. Arif Husain, chief economist of the United Nations World Food Programme, said: “I have never seen anything on the scale and speed of what is happening in Gaza.” The World Health Organization reports that there are no longer any fully functioning hospitals.

Source: Today IT

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