UNSC Puts Vote On Gaza Ceasefire Resolution On Hold, As Guterres Pushes For Peace

Warning that Gazans “are looking into the abyss”, the United Nations chief Friday called on the UN Security Council for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict, but the 15-member body delayed action on a resolution to achieve that objective until after a planned meeting between Arab ministers and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken

UNITED NATIONS, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Dec, 2023) Warning that Gazans “are looking into the abyss”, the United Nations chief Friday called on the UN Security Council for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict, but the 15-member body delayed action on a resolution to achieve that objective until after a planned meeting between Arab ministers and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“I urge the Council to spare no effort to push for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, for the protection of civilians, and for the urgent delivery of lifesaving aid,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, recalling also the importance of the two-state solution, based on UN resolutions and international law, with Israel and Palestine living side-by-side in peace and security.

The United States - a veto-wielding power on the council - has said it does not currently support further action by the Security Council on the conflict between its ally Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

“For that reason," US Deputy Abassador Robert Wood said, "while the US strongly supports a durable peace in which both Israel and Palestine can live in peace and security, we do not support calls for an immediate ceasefire.

"This would only plant the seeds for the next war, because Hamas has no desire to see a durable peace, to see a two-State solution,” he claimed.

The council last month called for pauses in the deadly Israeli bombardments to allow aid access.

The Security Council will now vote on the resolution drafted by the United Arab Emirates at 5.30 pm local time Friday (Editor: 3:30 am pst Saturday) - just after Blinken meets in Washington DC with ministers from Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian Authority and Türkiye.

"Today this council will vote, it will have an opportunity to respond to the deafening calls across the world to bring this violence to an end," Deputy UAE Ambassador to the UN Mohamed Abushahab told the council.

To be adopted, a Security Council resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by the five permanent members - the United States, Russia, China, France or the United Kingdom.

While the vote was delayed, the council still convened on Friday morning to hear a briefing by the UN Secretary-General, after he made a rare move under Article 99 of the UN Charter on Wednesday to formally warn of a global threat from the war.

"There is a high risk of the total collapse of the humanitarian support system in Gaza, which would have devastating consequences,” he said.

The UN chief said public order could completely break down, increasing pressure for mass displacement across the border into Egypt.

“I fear the consequences could be devastating for the security of the entire region”, he said, adding that the Occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, had already been drawn into the conflict to varying degrees.

There is clearly, in my view, a serious risk of aggravating existing threats to the maintenance of international peace and security”.

He said more than 130 of his colleagues had already been killed: "this is the largest single loss of life in the history of this Organization. Some of our staff take their children to work so they know they will live or die together."

With most Gazans displaced and unable to access any aid, hospitals overrun and food running out, the main UN agency there said society was "on the verge of a full-blown collapse" and its ability to protect people there was "reducing fast".

Residents and the Israeli military both reported intensified fighting in both northern areas, where Israel had previously said its troops had largely completed their tasks last month, and in the south where they mounted a new assault this week.

Gaza's health ministry reported 350 people killed on Thursday, bringing the death toll from Israel's two-month campaign in Gaza to 17,487, with thousands more missing and presumed buried under rubble.

More strikes were reported on Friday morning in Khan Younis in the south, the Nusseirat camp in the centre and Gaza City in the north.

An Israeli commander, Brigadier General Dan Goldfuss, said in a video message recorded in Khan Younis that his forces were fighting house to house and "shaft to shaft," a reference to Israel's claims of tunnel shafts in the enclave.

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