“Almost insignificant”: Aid organizations criticize UN Security Council resolution on the war between Israel and Hamas
Several people wait in a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) vehicle in front of the gate of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in the southern Gaza Strip on November 1, 2023. (Source: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images)
The resolution adopted by the UN Security Council is “almost insignificant” for the lives of civilians in Gaza, said a statement from Doctors Without Borders.
Friday's resolution calls for a humanitarian pause between Israel and Hamas, an increase in aid to Gaza and the creation of conditions that allow for a sustainable end to the fighting and end days of closed-door negotiations.
The United States and Russia abstained from the vote and decided not to use their veto power.
But Doctors Without Borders joined other aid organizations in criticizing the resolution as ineffective.
“The resolution adopted today by the Security Council falls woefully short of what is needed to address the Gaza crisis: an immediate and lasting ceasefire. This resolution has been watered down to such an extent that its impact on the lives of civilians in Gaza will be virtually insignificant,” said Avril Benoit, the organization's executive director in the United States.
Benoit stated that the way Israel is waging the war is “causing massive death and suffering among the Palestinian civilian population and is inconsistent with international norms and laws.”
According to Benoit, “ensuring the rapid flow of humanitarian assistance to Gaza and the safe and unhindered delivery of aid within the Gaza Strip” should have been established from the beginning of the crisis and should not have taken so long.
Benoit called on the UN Security Council and the US government to “focus their attention on establishing a ceasefire and ensuring that international humanitarian law does not become an afterthought in this conflict.”
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responded to the Gaza resolution on Friday, welcoming calls for immediate humanitarian access throughout the Gaza Strip. However, he also noted in a statement that “from a humanitarian perspective, the Security Council's failure to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire cannot be justified.”