The resolution now seems weakened enough for the US to not veto it
UN Security Council resolution for more aid into Gaza softened as US says it will support it
A United Nations Security Council resolution on suspending fighting between Israel and Hamas and allowing more aid into Gaza has been softened, according to a source familiar with the text, as the United States says it’s ready to support it.
The UN is poised to vote Friday on the resolution. Language calling for “urgent steps” to lay the ground “for a sustainable cessation of hostilities” was instrumental in the United States’ decision to support a resolution from the United Nations Security Council, increasing the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza while calling for a halt in hostilities.
The language of the text has been replaced with “urgent steps to immediately allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and also for creating the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities,” according to the source.
A diplomatic source previously told CNN that key issues with the negotiations over the draft included language on the “cessation of hostilities” and a call for the UN to “establish a monitoring mechanism in the Gaza Strip with the necessary personnel and equipment, under the authority of the United Nations Secretary-General.”
Diplomats had been working behind closed doors to finalize a resolution drafted by the United Arab Emirates. A US official familiar with the discussions said the draft had started with calling for an “urgent cessation” of hostilities. Neither the United States nor Israel currently supports a ceasefire, so the US countered with “a more passive formulation,” the official said, describing the language that ended up in the resolution.
“Israel is aware and can live with it,” the official added, while arguing it was not the language on the cessation of hostilities that caused the delays but rather the disagreements over the monitoring mechanism.
US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced late Thursday that the US would support the measure after previously voting four times to delay a vote on the resolution.
Israel doesn't want the UN monitoring the situation, I guess they want to reduce the amount of scandals when hitting UN personnel.
Palestinian head of key Israel-Gaza border crossing killed in Israeli strike, Gaza official says
The director of the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, a key border crossing between Israel and Gaza that was recently reopened for the entry of aid into the Palestinian enclave, was killed in an Israeli strike on Thursday, a Gazan border official told CNN.
Bassam Ghaben and three other employees were killed after being hit by an Israeli drone strike, the official said.
The Israeli military said on Friday that it “struck armed terrorists near” the crossing and that the incident is under review.
“The IDF attacked Hamas militants with weapons that came and approached to our border and to this crossing, period," Col. Moshe Tetro, a senior Israeli defense ministry official with responsibilities for Gaza, told CNN Friday.
He declined to answer, when pressed by CNN, on whether the reported militants presented an imminent threat. "I think that I gave a very clear answer. We attacked militants with weapons," he said.
Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, said on Thursday that delivery operations at the crossing were temporarily suspended after the reported strike and that the UN believes the aid deliveries have now resumed. A CNN team on the ground on the Israeli side of the crossing witnessed aid trucks heading into Israel from Egypt and getting checked at Kerem Shalom — and appeared to be heading into Gaza.
Got to keep bombing freely anywhere, even the designated safe areas
Israel struck some areas it directed civilians to in Gaza, CNN analysis shows
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/21/middleeast/israel-strikes-evacuation-zones-gaza-intl-cmd/index.html
Israel has struck at least three locations in Gaza to which it had ordered civilians to evacuate since the breakdown of a fragile truce between Israel and Hamas earlier this month, CNN analysis has found.
Aid is only allowed in at Rafah and Kerem Shalom. It currently can't reach the North of Gaza, where Israel wants civilians to return to there bombed out homes...
Israel dropped hundreds of 2,000-pound bombs on Gaza, analysis shows
In the first month of its war in Gaza, Israel dropped hundreds of massive bombs, many of them capable of killing or wounding people more than 1,000 feet away, analysis by CNN and artificial intelligence company Synthetaic suggests.
Satellite imagery from those early days of the war reveals more than 500 impact craters over 12 meters (40 feet) in diameter, consistent with those left behind by 2,000-pound bombs. Those are four times heavier than the largest bombs the United States dropped on ISIS in Mosul, Iraq, during the war against the extremist group there.
Weapons and warfare experts blame the extensive use of heavy munitions such as the 2,000-pound bomb for the soaring death toll. The population of Gaza is packed together much more tightly than almost anywhere else on earth, so the use of such heavy munitions has a profound effect.
US Bombs btw
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/u-s-sends-israel-2-000-pound-bunker-buster-bombs-for-gaza-war-82898638
Hopefully aid increases quickly. Only 10% of what's needed is currently allowed in.
The proportion of households in Gaza affected by high levels of acute food insecurity is the largest ever recorded globally, according to the report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) published on Thursday.
No wonder the US wants to block Gaza from being discussed in a conference about the Geneva conventions. Back to medieval times, with bigger cannons.
Israel indicates it’s widening military operation in Gaza ahead of expected UN Security Council vote
Israel indicated Friday that it is widening its military operation in Gaza as the United States says it is ready to support a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for suspension of fighting and increase in aid to the besieged enclave.
The Israel Defense Forces on Friday ordered the residents of the Al-Bureij refugee camp in Deir al-Balah and several other areas in central Gaza to move to shelters for safety, signaling a new focus of the ground offensive. Shortly after the warning on Friday, an Israeli airstrike hit the Al-Bureij refugee camp, a hospital spokesperson said.
Any efforts for relief only seem to only have the opposite effect
A screen grab captured from the ‘X’ (formerly known as Twitter) account of the Israeli army spokesperson shows attacks and explosion in Er-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, Gaza on Dec. 21 [Israel Defense Forces/Anadolu Agency]
Gaza resolution passes at the UN Security Council
The US and Russia both abstained.
Russian amendment vetoed by US
The amendment sought to reintroduce language calling for a “suspension” of hostilities.
Ten voted in favour. Four abstained. The US voted against, which invoked their veto power.
Vassily Nebenzia has said the US opposition to the initial draft resolution, which resulted in days of negotiations, has resulted in a “toothless” and “neutered” draft. He particularly criticised watered-down language that called for the creation of “conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities”, saying it fell short of actually pausing fighting and would give Israel a “free hand” to continue its operations.
He introduced an amendment that would call for a “suspension” of fighting to allow more aid access.
UAE envoy to UN: ‘Only a ceasefire will end the suffering’
“The purpose of this text is very simple,” she said. It seeks to respond to the “dire humanitarian situation on the ground for the Palestinian people bearing the brunt of this conflict, while protecting those who are trying to deliver life-saving aid”.
She said all crossings must be opened to scale up aid to Gaza. Still, she added, “If deconfliction does not happen, aid simply cannot reach those who need it.”
The draft resolution, which does not call for a ceasefire, comes up short, she said, “We know this is not a perfect text. We know only a ceasefire will end the suffering.”
