The UN Security Council (SC) decided to postpone the voting date on the draft humanitarian resolution on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to December 21. This was announced on Wednesday, December 20, by the Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the UN, Jose de la Gasca, in an interview with reporters.
“The Security Council has agreed to continue discussions today,” he said.
As the Permanent Representative of the United Arab Emirates to the organization, Lana Zaki Nusseibah, noted, states are currently “having discussions at a very high level” on the draft resolution in order to put it to a vote.
Earlier that day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia does not exclude the option in which the United States could prevent the adoption of a resolution at a UN Security Council meeting on the situation around the Middle East conflict.
The day before, the Russian permanent representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, said that Washington blocked all proposed draft resolutions demanding a ceasefire, and now, instead of providing assistance to civilians, it is massively supplying Israel with all types of weapons. The Russian side expects that the Security Council will soon be able to decide which version of the resolution to choose, he noted.
On the same day, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, at a meeting with ambassadors, announced that Tel Aviv was ready to agree to another humanitarian pause in the Gaza Strip for the sake of the release of hostages captured by the Palestinian radical movement Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted on December 16 that new negotiations were underway for the return of hostages held by Hamas. As noted, the head of Israeli intelligence met with the Prime Minister of Qatar, the mediating country in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Netanyahu issued a statement after the meeting in which he dodged the question of a possible truce, but confirmed that he had given instructions to the negotiating team.
On December 4, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari said that Israel continues to expand the scale of its operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The truce between Israel and Hamas, which was in force on November 24, ended on December 1. Thanks to this temporary ceasefire agreement, the parties exchanged more than 200 hostages and prisoners.
The situation in the Middle East escalated on the morning of October 7, when the Hamas movement subjected Israeli territory to massive rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, and also invaded the border areas in the south of the country and took hostages. That same day, Israel began retaliating against targets in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians are seeking to return the borders between the two countries to the lines that existed before the 1967 Six-Day War. Palestine wants to create its own state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and make East Jerusalem its capital. Israel refuses the conditions set.
#Security #Council #postpones #voting #draft #humanitarian #resolution #Gaza