UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Thursday welcomed the Security Council call for pauses in the fighting in Gaza where “doctors operate on screaming children without anaesthetic, using mobile phones for light”, before appealing directly to the warring sides to lay down their weapons.
UNITED NATIONS —
The U.N. Security Council overcame weeks of inaction and bickering Wednesday to issue a call for “extended humanitarian pauses” in the Gaza Strip, especially for the protection of children, only to have Israel immediately reject the measure.
“This draft resolution we have in front of us today seeks to offer hope in this dark hour,” said Malta’s Ambassador Vanessa Frazier, who led the negotiations and drafted the text. “It aims to ensure a respite from the current nightmare in Gaza and give hope to the families of all victims. It focuses in particular on the plight of children trapped in the warring enclave and those held hostage.”
The resolution calls for “extended humanitarian pauses and corridors” in Gaza “for a sufficient number of days” to let aid in, repair damage to critical infrastructure such as hospitals, water wells and bakeries, and to enable medical evacuations, especially of children. It also calls for the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages” held by Hamas and other groups — particularly children.
Council resolutions are legally binding, but parties named in them frequently ignore them, with little consequence.
Israel’s envoy told the council that his government does not need a resolution to remind it to adhere to international law and that Hamas would not “even bother reading it.”
“Hence, this resolution does nothing to contribute to the situation on the ground,” said Israel’s deputy envoy Brett Jonathan Miller. “Bringing our hostages home is Israel’s top priority, and seeing that Security Council resolutions hold no sway with terrorists, Israel will continue to do whatever it takes to accomplish this goal.”
Last week, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Gaza is becoming “a graveyard for children.”
More than 4,500 Palestinian children have been killed and almost 9,000 injured since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack inside Israel triggered the war. Scores more children are missing and believed to be among the dead under Gaza’s rubble.
At least 31 children were killed in Israel during the terror attacks, and about 30 more are reported to be among the hostages abducted to Gaza, including a 3-year-old American child.
The head of the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, visited Gaza on Wednesday.
“I am here to do whatever I can to advocate for the protection of children,” Executive Director Catherine Russell said. “I once again call on all parties to ensure that children are protected and assisted, as per international humanitarian law. Only the parties to the conflict can truly stop this horror.”