Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Algeria to propose UN Security Council resolution to 'stop killing' in Rafah

Draft resolution seen by Anadolu calls on Israel to 'immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in Rafah
'

Rabia Iclal Turan and Serife Cetin |29.05.2024 - 



NEW YORK

Algeria is circulating a draft UN Security Council resolution to "stop the killing" in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah as Israel intensifies its attacks in the densely populated area.

"Algeria will circulate this afternoon a draft resolution on Rafah. It will be a short text, a decisive text, to stop the killing in Rafah," Algeria’s Ambassador to the UN, Amar Bendjama, told reporters after a Security Council meeting.

It is not immediately clear when the voting on the draft resolution will take place.

The draft resolution seen by Anadolu calls on Israel to "immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in Rafah.”

It demands an immediate cease-fire respected by all parties and the "immediate and unconditional" release of all hostages while demanding that the parties "comply with their obligations under international law in relation to all persons they detain.”

The draft resolution also demands the “full implementation” of previous UN Security Council resolutions, such as a Nov. 1, 2023 resolution calling for "extended humanitarian pauses and corridors" in Gaza, a Dec. 22, 2023 resolution calling for "safe, unhindered and expanded" humanitarian access to Gaza and a March 25, 2024 resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

All three UN Security Council resolutions also demanded the release of hostages held by the Palestinian group Hamas.

The draft resolution also expresses "grave concern" over the catastrophic humanitarian situation with a famine spreading throughout the Gaza Strip and condemns the "indiscriminate targeting" of civilians and civilian infrastructure.

The US has vetoed three previous UN Security Council resolutions calling for a cease-fire in Gaza since Oct. 7 and called the March 25 cease-fire resolution, which was adopted with the US abstaining, "non-binding."

Algeria’s move comes after at least 45 people were killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 250 injured in an Israeli strike on a displaced persons camp in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Sunday. It occurred near the logistics base of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in Tal al-Sultan, said the Gaza-based Government Media Office.

Israel has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 last year.

Hamas's cross-border attack against Israel killed around 1,200 people
 (600 WERE IDF)
 according to Israeli figures, while around 250 were taken to Gaza as hostages.


World’s Largest Humanitarian Network Calls for Gaza Ceasefire


A beam of light is seen in northern Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, near the Israel-Gaza border, as seen from Israel, May 28, 2024. (Reuters)

\29 May 2024 AD ـ 21 Thul-Qi’dah 1445 AH

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) called on Wednesday for a ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip, where millions of people face worsening hunger.

The war-torn enclave is suffering from a humanitarian catastrophe nearly seven months after Israel launched a devastating offensive in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks that killed 1,200 people in Israel.

"We desperately need a political solution that will allow us to have a ceasefire to get aid in," IFRC President Kate Forbes told Reuters in an interview in the capital, Manila.

"We're ready to make a difference. We have to have access, and to have access there has to have a ceasefire," said Forbes, who in December became the second woman to ever hold the top job at the world's largest humanitarian network.

The IFRC president is a volunteer position and oversees a network that unites 191 organizations working during and after disasters and wars, such as the Palestine Red Crescent Society, which has ambulance crews in Gaza.

Forbes said she had seen the "atrocious" situation in Rafah during a visit in February, months before Israel launched a military assault on the southern Gaza city, which had been sheltering more than a million Palestinians who fled assaults on other parts of the enclave.

"There was not enough housing. There was no water, there weren't enough sanitation toilets. We had a hospital with no equipment... and unfortunately what I was afraid of has happened, and that there wasn't going to be enough food," Forbes said.

Prospects for a resumption of mediated Gaza ceasefire talks grew over the weekend, even as Israel pressed on with its offensive in Gaza to eliminate the Palestinian armed group Hamas after the top United Nations court ordered Israel on Friday to stop attacking Rafah.

Hamas has denied reports that talks would resume earlier this week. Both sides have blamed the other for the deadlock. Israel has said it cannot accept Hamas' demand to end the war, while the Palestinians want Palestinian prisoners to be released.

"I plead with the governments on all sides to negotiate a ceasefire so that we can get aid in," Forbes said.

"My job is to ensure that when it (ceasefire) happens, we can give the aid that's necessary. And so they need to do their jobs so I can do my job," she added.

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