The United Nations Security Council on Friday passed a resolution aimed at increasing humanitarian aid for Gaza — overcoming intense resistance from the U.S. that ultimately forced diplomats from multiple countries to weaken the potential effect of the initiative.
The U.S. abstained from voting on the resolution while 13 other council members voted for it.
The resolution, proposed by the United Arab Emirates on behalf of Arab and Muslim states, focuses on helping the more than 2 million people in the territory who have been growing increasingly desperate since Israel launched a massive, U.S.-backed offensive there to strike Gaza-based militants responsible for an attack in Israel on October 7.
On Thursday, the world’s top tracker of hunger, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, said more than 90% of people in Gaza now face high levels of acute food insecurity, calling that the highest share of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity the group has ever classified for any area since it was launched in 2004.
The U.S. ― which has the power to veto Security Council resolutions ― says it believes more aid must get into Gaza faster, but President Joe Biden has been reluctant to pressure Israel, which largely controls aid flows, to take tangible steps to make that happen.
In negotiations over the just-passed resolution, American diplomats told foreign counterparts they did not want to veto it but strongly resisted language proposing limits to Israel’s military operation on humanitarian grounds and shifting oversight of aid to the U.N., a step the U.S. has supported in other war zones.
Diplomats this week told HuffPost they repeatedly assessed a U.S. veto as a near certainty. The council delayed the vote by multiple days at the U.S.’s request.
“The U.S. was at an advantage in negotiations this week because most council members believed that Washington was willing to cast another veto, despite the reputational costs,” said Richard Gowan, the U.N. director at the International Crisis Group think tank.
The U.S. was widely criticised for vetoing a Security Council vote for a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza earlier this month; nearly all other countries on the council and the overwhelming majority of U.N. member states support that idea.
The final language ― which directs the U.N. to quickly establish a new aid coordinator position ― drew mixed reviews.
Russia and China, which also have veto power at the council, threatened on Thursday night to bar the resolution because they deemed it insufficient, a Muslim diplomat told HuffPost.
Still, some observers expressed hope the appointment of a coordinator will be a way to pressure Israel to allow in more assistance and praised the resolution’s calls for adherence to international humanitarian law.
“I understand some Arab diplomats think that the text is too weak, and it is certainly incredibly convoluted at certain points. But it also creates some opportunities for [U.N. Secretary General Antonio] Guterres to try to reinforce U.N. humanitarian operations in Gaza,” Gowan told HuffPost.
Louis Charbonneau, the U.N. director at Human Rights Watch, said the passage of the resolution should push all parties involved to change course to address the crisis.
“The U.S. needs to ensure that Israel implements it. Israel must immediately stop the atrocities ― no more collective punishment, no more starving and unlawfully bombing civilians,” Charbonneau said in a statement. “The council sent a clear message to Palestinian armed groups to end indiscriminate rocket attacks and release all civilian hostages. The Israeli military should also restore essential services for Gaza and allow humanitarian aid to reach all those in need.”
On Friday, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas Greenfield rejected the idea that the resolution was too weak, calling it “a strong step forward.” The U.S.’s Gaza policy of largely unchecked support of Israel has complicated the position of Thomas-Greenfield and her team, U.S. officials recently told HuffPost.
“Linda Thomas-Greenfield and her team were effectively able to play the good cop with other council members, nudging them towards a deal, while everyone feared that Biden would play bad cop and insist on a veto,” Gowan said, saying the U.S. was able to “extract a lot of concessions.”
He noted that the UAE ― a close American partner ― faced particular pressure to reach a workable compromise because their term on the council will soon end. Meanwhile, “the Russians were pretty obviously looking for a way to force the U.S. into a veto.”
“The U.S. did genuinely make some concessions of its own, although mainly on points of language such as the use of the word ‘cessation,’” relating to the prospect of continued fighting, Gowan added.
Earlier in the day, a U.N. expert made a striking warning about the ramifications of Israel’s ongoing campaign, raising the specter of permanent displacement for millions of Palestinians.
“As evacuation orders and military operations continue to expand and civilians are subjected to relentless attacks on a daily basis, the only logical conclusion is that Israel’s military operation in Gaza aims to deport the majority of the civilian population en masse,” Paula Gaviria Betancur, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, announced. The majority of people in Gaza are themselves descendants of Palestinians who were forced out of their historic neighborhoods amid the establishment of Israel in 1948.