UN Security Council passes resolution calling for increase in humanitarian aid into Gaza

The UN Security Council on Friday passed a resolution calling for “urgent steps” to immediately allow “safe, unhindered, and expanded” humanitarian access to Gaza in the face of the raging attacks by the Israeli Defence Forces.

The vote followed days of negotiations to avoid a veto by Israel’s main ally the US.

The resolution motion , however, fell short of demanding an immediate ceasefire in the war.

The United States and Russia abstained, while the 13 other members of the council – including the UK, which had previously abstained on a similar resolution – supported the text that now demands creating conditions “for a sustainable cessation of hostilities”.

The resolution demands that the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appoint a “senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator” to hasten the delivery of humanitarian aid to the civilian population in Gaza.

Despite the call for humanitarian ceasefire, Israel pounded the enclave on Friday night with several reports of air strikes and bombardments.

Doctors Without Borders said in a post on X, that Israel’s “indiscriminate strikes” on Gaza had “turned the north of the Strip into a pile of rubble”.

Israel launched its offensive after Hamas fighters crossed from Gaza into Israel on 7 October, killing 1,200 people and taking several people hostage.

According to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, no fewer than 20,000 people have been killed and over 50,000 injured in the Gaza Strip since the fighting started.