The US negotiated for days to weaken the language of the resolution to ensure there is no call for an immediate ceasefire
\nNew York
\nThe United Nations Security Council passed a resolution on more aid for Gaza after several days of delays and weakened language that did not call for a ceasefire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, prompting a backlash with some describing it as \u201cwoefully insufficient\u201d and \u201cnearly meaningless\u201d.
\nThe resolution merely called for steps \u201cto create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities\u201d, and was adopted on Friday with 13 votes in favour, none against, and the United States and Russia abstaining.
\nIt also demanded that all parties \u201cfacilitate and enable the immediate, safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance at scale\u201d to Palestinian civilians.
\nIt came after several postponements and difficult closed-door negotiations aimed at reaching a compromise in the language that would not be rejected by Washington, which vetoed another UNSC resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire earlier this month.
\nWhile UNSC resolutions are legally binding, Al Jazeera\u2019s Alan Fisher said that Israel and other countries have ignored them in the past.
\n\u201cThe circumstances and the consequences for people refusing to follow these Security Council resolutions seem to be much worse for some countries than others,\u201d said Fisher, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem.
\nPalestinian officials have said that more than 20,000 people, about 70 percent of them children and women, have been killed in Israel\u2019s land, air and sea offensive in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war on October 7.
\nWhile top UN officials and international aid agencies welcomed the call for more humanitarian assistance, they said the resolution does not go far enough with the majority of the enclave\u2019s population of 2.3 million displaced, the imminent threat of famine and the spread of diseases.
\nUN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a post on X that he hopes the resolution can improve the delivery of aid, \u201cbut a humanitarian ceasefire is the only way to begin to meet the desperate needs of people in Gaza and end their ongoing nightmare\u201d.
\nThe head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, welcomed the resolution but reiterated the need for an \u201cimmediate ceasefire\u201d.
\nOxfam America\u2019s Scott Paul stressed to Al Jazeera that aid to Gaza \u201ccan\u2019t work while the bombs are falling and destroying houses, factories, farms, mills, [and] bakeries\u201d.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s no point in bringing in flour if you can\u2019t bake bread with it. So the focus is entirely wrong,\u201d Paul said.
\nInternational medical charity Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) said the measure fell \u201cpainfully short\u201d of what is needed to address the dire humanitarian crisis.
\n\u201cThis resolution has been watered down to the point that its impact on the lives of civilians in Gaza will be nearly meaningless,\u201d MSF-USA Executive Director Avril Benoit said in a statement.
\n\u201cAnyone with a conscience agrees that a massive scale-up of the humanitarian response in Gaza must take place without delay.\u201d
\nAll efforts to address the \u201cunprecedented humanitarian catastrophe\u201d in Gaza must be welcomed, said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International\u2019s secretary general, but emphasised that \u201cnothing short of an immediate ceasefire is enough\u201d.
\nShe said the resolution \u201cwas watered down significantly\u201d and \u201cinsufficient\u201d and added that it is \u201cdisgraceful that the US was able to stall and use the threat of its veto power to force the UN Security Council to weaken a much-needed call for an immediate end to attacks by all parties\u201d.
\nTamer Qarmout, assistant professor in public policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera that the vote showed how the UN has become \u201cirrelevant\u201d to resolving the war.
\n\u201cWhen the UN was formed after World War II, it was supposed to tackle, to prevent similar conflicts such as the one happening in Gaza,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s a political organisation that is controlled by powerful countries, especially those with veto power at the UN Security Council. So politics is there in every policy and little detail of the UN work.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t think this war can be resolved through UN channels \u2026 The UN is becoming irrelevant, marginalised, very politicised and its mandate is being questioned now,\u201d he added.
\nArdi Imseis, assistant professor of international law at Queen\u2019s University in Canada, said the UNSC has yet again failed in its responsibility to safeguard international peace and security due to the actions of one member, the US, which is protecting its ally Israel.
\nToday, he told Al Jazeera, the two \u201cfind themselves out on a limb against the whole of the international community and all of it at the expense of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip \u2013 defenceless, starved, chased out of their homes, subject to a scorched earth tactic\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The US negotiated for days to weaken the language of the resolution to ensure there is no call for an immediate ceasefire New York The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution on more aid for Gaza after several days of delays and weakened language that did not call for a ceasefire in the Israeli-Palestinian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376405,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-376388","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n