——– With US support Israel continue deadly airstrike, raids, China calls for immediate ceasefire
——– China insists UNSC to take urgent action
——–UN calls Gaza’s humanitarian situation ‘inhumane’; people ‘hanging by a thread’
——– Blames security collapse as aid deliveries to Gaza dry up
New York: Reacting to the United States’ veto of a draft United Nations Security Council (UNSC) reso-lution on the Israel-Hamas war, blocking a demand for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, China has termed the US move as a “license to kill”. China’s permanent representative to the UN Zhang Jun has said that objection to a ceasefire in Gaza is nothing different from giving a green light to continued slaughter.”
Meanwhile, The United States again vetoed a draft United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution on the Israel-Hamas war, blocking a demand for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire as it instead pushes the 15-member body to call for a temporary ceasefire linked to the release of hostages held by Hamas. Thirteen council members voted in favour of the Algerian-drafted text, while Britain abstained. It was the third such US veto since the start of the current fighting on October 7.“A vote in favour of this draft resolution is support to the Palestinians’ right to life. Conversely, voting against it implies an endorsement of the brutal violence and collective punishment inflicted upon them,” Algeria’s UN Ambassador Amar Bendjama told the council before the vote.
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield signalled on Saturday that the US would veto the draft resolution over concerns it could jeopardize talks between the US, Egypt, Israel and Qatar that seek to broker a pause in the war and the release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“Any action this council takes right now should help, not hinder these sensitive, and ongoing negotia-tions. And we believe that the resolution on the table right now would, in fact, negatively impact those negotiations,” Thomas-Greenfield told the council ahead of the vote.
Meanwhile, A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday that protracted Palestinian-Israeli conflict has resulted in a devastating humanitarian situation in Gaza and severely impacted re-gional peace and stability.
The Security Council must take immediate action to push for a ceasefire. This is a moral obligation that the Council cannot shy away from and a legal responsibility that the Council must assume, Mao Ning said during a regular briefing held here.
Even more so, this is a political requirement that the Council must fulfill in accordance with the Charter, she stressed.
The spokesperson said that Chinese side warned that the U.S veto of a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) draft resolution pushes the situation in Gaza into a more dangerous one.
The draft resolution that would have demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, won 13 votes in favor among the 15 members of the Security Council. The United States voted against it and Britain abstained.
Mao Ning said various parties including China, expressed strong disappointment and dissatisfaction with the veto.
According to Mao Ning, Algeria, on behalf of the Arab states, put forward the draft resolution de-manding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, immediate release of all hostages, guaranteed access to hu-manitarian supplies, and the rejection of forced displacement.
“This is both urgently required by the situation on the ground, and it is also based on the minimum re-quirement of humanity. The draft resolution was supported by the overwhelming majority of the Council members,” Mao stressed, adding that China voted in favor of the draft resolution as well.
The spokesperson also said that China will continue to work with the rest of the international commu-nity to push the Council to take further actions that are responsible and meaningful for an early end of the fighting in Gaza, de-escalation of the humanitarian situation, implementation of the two-state so-lution and lasting peace and security in the Middle East.
On the other hand, An “inhumane” health and humanitarian situation now prevails across besieged Gaza with conditions continuing to deteriorate, the head of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned Wednesday, amid escalating Israeli attacks against the enclave. “Gaza has become a death zone,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General told reporters at a press briefing in Ge-neva.
“Much of the territory has been destroyed. More than 29,000 people are dead; many more are miss-ing, presumed dead; and many, many more are injured,” he added. Across the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, severe malnutrition has shot up dramatically since October 7, from under one per cent of the population, to over 15 per cent in some areas.
“This figure will rise the longer the war goes on and supplies [are] interrupted,” Tedros said, express-ing deep concern that agencies such as the World Food Programme (WFP) were unable to access the north. The WFP suspended its aid deliveries there due to lack of security for both humanitarian per-sonnel and those seeking assistance. “What type of world do we live when people cannot get food and water, and when people who cannot even walk are unable to receive care?” he lamented.
“What type of world do we live in when health workers are at risk of being bombed as they carry out their life saving work [and] hospitals must close because there is no more power or medicines to help save patients?” He underscored the need for an immediate ceasefire, for hostages to be released, the guns to fall silent, and unfettered humanitarian access. Over the past three days the UN health agency and partners carried out several emergency missions to the Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, to evacuate critically ill patients, including children. “With the intensive care units no longer working, WHO helped move patients, many of whom cannot even walk,” Tedros said.
Around 130 sick and injured patients and at least 15 doctors and nurses remain in the hospital, amidst ongoing Israeli military operations, no electricity and running water and dwindling lifesaving medical supplies, it was pointed out. The WFP, in a statement, said, “The decision to pause deliveries to the north of the Gaza Strip has not been taken lightly, as we know it means the situation there will deteri-orate further and more people risk dying of hunger.”
“WFP is deeply committed to urgently reaching desperate people across Gaza but the safety and secu-rity to deliver critical food aid — and for the people receiving it — must be ensured,” the release con-tinued. Another United Nations agency, UNICEF, published a study this week that found 1 in 6 children younger than 2 years old in northern Gaza are malnourished. Three percent of that group are experi-encing wasting, which means being severely underweight for their age and height.
The WFP said it resumed deliveries Sunday following a three-week suspension due to a strike on a UN relief truck and “the absence of a functioning humanitarian notification system”. The agency said it was sending 10 trucks with food each day for a week in an attempt to “stem the tide of hunger and des-peration and to begin building trust in communities that there would be enough food for all”. But as it started on its route to Gaza City, “the convoy was surrounded by crowds of hungry people close to the Wadi Gaza checkpoint”.
“First fending off multiple attempts by people trying to climb aboard our trucks, then facing gunfire once we entered Gaza City, our team was able to distribute a small quantity of the food along the way,” the WFP’s release said. “On Monday, the second convoy’s journey north faced complete chaos and violence due to the collapse of civil order.” “Several trucks were looted between Khan Younes and Deir al Balah and a truck driver was beaten,” it added. “The remaining flour was spontaneously distrib-uted off the trucks in Gaza City, amidst high tension and explosive anger.” –Agencies
