Security Council Calls for Immediate Gaza Truce, But Fighting Rages
The U.N. Security Council called for an "immediate" and "durable" cease-fire in Gaza in a resolution Thursday night even as fighting between Israel and Hamas raged.
U.N. action came hours after the world body suspended food deliveries to Gaza and the Red Cross accused Israel of blocking medical assistance after forces fired on aid workers. It also followed concerns of a wider conflict which flared as rockets were fired from south Lebanon into northern Israel.
The vote was 14-0, with the United States abstaining. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. "fully supports" the resolution but abstained "to see the outcomes of the Egyptian mediation" with Israel and Hamas, also aimed at achieving a cease-fire.
Israel and Hamas were not parties to the vote and it will now be up to them to stop the fighting. But the text of the resolution was hammered out by the United States and by Arab nations that have ties to Hamas and the Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories.
As the Security Council took action late Thursday in New York, it was early Friday in Gaza and violence continued unabated – Israel carried out heavy attacks and new rockets hit the Jewish state.
Commenting on the resolution, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said: "Israel has acted, and will continue to act only according to its calculations, in the interest of the security of its citizens and its right to self defense."
Hamas representative in Lebanon Ossama Hamdan also told al-Arabiya TV network that the resolution does not concern the militant group.
"Israel should first abide by the ceasefire," he stressed.
The resolution "stresses the urgency of and calls for an immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza." It expressed "grave concern" at the escalating violence and the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and emphasized the need to open all border crossings and achieve a lasting solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
It also calls on U.N. member states "to intensify efforts to provide arrangements and guarantees in Gaza in order to sustain a durable cease-fire and calm, including to prevent illicit trafficking in arms and ammunition and to ensure the sustained re-opening" of border crossings.
In addition, the resolution "condemns all violence and hostilities directed against civilians," calls for "unimpeded" humanitarian access to Gaza, and welcomes the initiative to open "humanitarian corridors."
Egyptian-led diplomatic cease-fire efforts showed no immediate breakthroughs. Israeli representatives concluded talks in Cairo and returned home, one day after Hamas leaders reviewed the French-Egyptian plan that might offer a role in Gaza to the rival Palestinian Authority.
Israel”s government said Wednesday it viewed the proposal positively, but only if it guaranteed a halt to rocket fire on Israeli territory from Gaza and ensured Hamas cannot rearm. A Hamas official said the group was not ready to either accept or reject the plan.
But Mohammed Nazzal, a member of Hamas” Damascus-based political leadership, said, "We will never raise the white flag. I believe there are going to be fierce battles and the resistance factions will fight house to house, street to street and neighborhood to neighborhood."