Gaza ceasefire and UN’s impotence

The UN Security Council delayed a vote on an Arab-sponsored resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the ongoing conflict in Gaza to allow unhindered access to deliver humanitarian aid to the hundred thousands civilians in dire need of food, water, medicine and other essential commodities of daily life. According to the UN food agency, about 56 percent of Gaza’s households were experiencing severe levels of hunger on December 14 and afterward, while those numbers would ultimately grow with every passing day if the global community fails in achieving a lasting ceasefire in the heightened hostility between Hamas and Israel.

Historically, this would be the third draft tabled by multiple Arab states and a majority of the world nations to achieve a ceasefire in the over two months long hostility that erupted on October 7, after Hamas fighters stormed into Southern Israel and took hostage 240 Israelis and foreigners. The previous two resolution drafts could not get passage from the 15 member UN Security Council (UNSC) primarily due to opposition from the United States, the strategic ally, resolute supporter and patron in chief of the sole Jewish state. Currently, the UN Security Council has delayed its vote on the proposed draft that aimed at conceiving an urgent ceasefire to avert the worst humanitarian crisis that is currently underway in Gaza and the West Bank. The global community is requesting the United States not to use its veto power by either supporting the globally agreed upon resolution draft or stay absent so this urgently needed resolution passes through the forum. The reports suggest that American diplomats are still opposing the draft and that’s language is likely to change, urging the parties a suspension in hostility instead of calling for an urgent and sustainable ceasefire.

More than 19,400 Palestinians have been killed, while thousands more Palestinians lie buried under the rubble in Gaza, since Israel declared war on Gaza. Nearly two million out of a totall 2.3 million Gazans suffered displacement and the entire region faces acute hunger and famine because the Israeli military has completely choked the provision of necessities including food, water, fuel, medicine and items of daily usage. So far, the massive displacement, scores of death and countless miseries, material and infrastructure damage could not satisfy the anger and hostility of the Jewish state and its staunch supporter, who persistently blocked the global efforts for peace in Palestine. The global community might fail in achieving its objectives but the outcome of the latest headcount will further segregate the supporters of oppressors and apartheid from human rights advocates and saviours of humanity.