The UN Security Council will meet this Wednesday to discuss the Palestinian issue and seek a common solution if the occupied territory experiences a real disaster.
The panel is holding another meeting amid tensions unprecedented in the decades-long conflict with Israel, as the United Nations warns of humanitarian needs in the Gaza Strip.
More than 300 tons of aid are waiting at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the coastal enclave, but movement has been hampered by Israeli bombings in the area.
More than a million Palestinians have been displaced while humanitarian organizations warn of overcrowding and a lack of water and electricity.
Meanwhile, the threat of attacks continues even in the most vulnerable places.
The day before, Al Ahli Anglican Episcopal Hospital was attacked by the Israelis, leaving hundreds dead, in what the United Nations said was a clear violation of international law.
UN hospitals, clinics, medical staff and premises are explicitly protected by international law, the organization’s head, António Guterres, warned in a statement.
“I am appalled by the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians today in an attack on a hospital in Gaza, which I condemn in the strongest possible terms,” he further wrote on his X account.
Guterres condemned another attack reported this Tuesday against a UN agency school in Al-Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza, in which at least six people were killed.
Amid the wave of violence, the Security Council failed to gather the necessary votes to adopt the humanitarian ceasefire declaration presented by Russia last Monday.
The proposal, supported by China, the United Arab Emirates, Gabon and Mozambique, did not receive the required nine votes within the 15-member body.
The missions of the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Japan rejected the text, while Albania, Brazil, Ghana, Malta, Switzerland and Ecuador abstained.
Russia’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, deplored the outcome and the “selfish intentions of the bloc of Western countries.”
“This is the only reason why (the Council) could not send a clear, powerful and collective message to reduce tensions; “We are talking about the worst explosion of violence in recent decades,” he emphasized.
Moscow’s proposal was one of two proposals analyzed by the UN security body.
Another text put forward by Brazil could be to introduce humanitarian pauses to allow access to aid and condemn the Hamas group for its attacks on Israel.