A resolution that calls for humanitarian pauses in the fighting between Israel and Hamas to allow aid to reach Gaza will be voted on by the United Nations Security Council today.
The council will also discuss – at the request of the United Arab Emirates and Russia – a blast at a Gaza hospital that killed hundreds of people on Tuesday, diplomats said.
The Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour accused Israeli forces of the “massacre” at the hospital and called for an immediate ceasefire. The Israeli U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan issued a statement blaming the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group for the blast.
Islamic Jihad denied the accusations. Reuters could not independently confirm who was behind the blast.
The vote on the resolution was originally scheduled for Monday, but it was delayed 24 hours to allow more time for negotiations. The United States then asked for another delay as President Joe Biden visits Israel on Wednesday.
It was not clear if the United States, a veto-power that usually protects its ally Israel from any Security Council action, would support the resolution. The draft text also urges Israel – without naming it – to cancel its order for Gaza civilians to move to the south of the Palestinian territory.
Israel last week ordered some 1.1 million people in Gaza – almost half the population – to move south as it prepares for a ground invasion in response to the worst Hamas attack on civilians in Israel’s history.
The resolution is similar to a Russian text that failed to pass in a vote on Monday, except it specifically condemns “the terrorist attacks by Hamas”. Instead of calling for a ceasefire, it calls for humanitarian pauses in the conflict to allow aid to reach Gaza.
Israel has imposed a total blockade on Gaza and subjected it to the most intense bombing ever. It has vowed to destroy Hamas after it killed 1,300 people and took hostages in an Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Some 3,000 Palestinians have been killed.
Health authorities in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip said that an Israeli air strike caused the blast while Israel’s military attributed it to a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group.
The blast was the bloodiest single incident in Gaza since Israel launched a bombing campaign to retaliate for an Oct. 7 Hamas assault on southern Israeli communities that killed 1,300 people. The strip is 45 km-long (25-mile) enclave and home to 2.3 million people.
