Israel Hamas war: UN Security Council passes resolution on Gaza aid amid calls for ceasefire

As the United Nation’s Security Council voted in favour of boosting humanitarian aid to the Gaza strip, the UN chief has spoken out Israeli forces creating obstacles to the provision of humanitarian aid.

António Guterres posted on X:

Israeli forces have killed more than 20,000 Palestinians, health officials in Gaza said Friday, as Israel expanded its offensive and ordered tens of thousands more people to leave their homes.

The deaths in Gaza amount to nearly 1% of the territory’s prewar population — the latest indication of the 11-week-old conflict’s staggering human toll.

Israel‘s aerial and ground offensive has been one of the most devastating military campaigns in recent history, displacing nearly 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people and leveling wide swaths of the tiny coastal enclave.

More than half a million people in Gaza — a quarter of the population — are starving, according to a report Thursday from the United Nations and other agencies.

Israel declared war after Hamas militants stormed across the border on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking some 240 hostages. Israel has vowed to keep up the fight until Hamas is destroyed and removed from power in Gaza and all the hostages are freed

.After many delays, the U.N. Security Council adopted a watered-down resolution Friday calling for immediately speeding up aid deliveries to desperate civilians in Gaza.

The United States won the removal of a tougher call for an “urgent suspension of hostilities” between Israel and Hamas. It abstained in the vote, as did Russia, which wanted the stronger language.

The resolution was the first on the war to make it through the council after the U.S. vetoed two earlier ones that called for humanitarian pauses and a full cease-fire.

After an eventful day at the UN, we’re signing off for now.

Thanks for reading The Independent’s live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.

Stay tuned for all the latest news and analysis.

An American citizen who was taken hostage by Hamas during the 7 October attacks on Israel has died in captivity in Gaza, according to a group representing hostages’ families.

Gadi Haggai, a 73-year-old US and Israeli dual national, was out for a walk with his wife Judith Weinstein Haggai, 70, in the Kibbutz Nir Oz where they lived that morning when Hamas militants stormed across the border into Israel, the Missing Persons Families Forum said.

The couple was reportedly shot at, with Gadi Haggai left critically injured.

Neither of them has been seen or heard from since.

In the immediate aftermath of the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel, Israeli prime minister asked if the US could pressure its ally Egypt to accept scores of Palestinian refugees, The Washington Post reports.

However, the Biden administration reportedly responded that Egypt would never go along with the idea, as it didn’t want to facilitate mass displacement.

Friday’s resolution emphasised the need for additional humanitarian aid to reach the civilians of Gaza.

Earlier this month, Richard Hall and Ariana Baio reported on some of the innocents who’ve already been killed.

On the front lines, the negotiations at the UN today must seem a long way away.

Hamas criticised the UN Security Council resolution calling for expedited aid to Gaza as an “insuficient step.”

“During the past five days, the US administration has worked hard to empty this resolution of its essence, and to issue it in this weak formula… it defies the will of the international community and the United Nations General Assembly in stopping Israel’s aggression against our defenseless Palestinian people,” the group said in a statement.

The Palestinian Authority, meanwhile, said the resolution was a step in the right direction but maintained calls for a ceasefire.

UNICEF, the United Nations body that provides humanitarian aid to children, has continued to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, as the conflict continues to kill numerous children.

Following Friday’s vote, they released a video appeal via X.

The Israel-Hamas war began when the militant group launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing numerous civilians.

In response, Israel has invaded Gaza, killing thousands of innocents, a vast majority of them women and children.

Alex Woodward reports on the horrifying civilian death toll.