In response to the United Nations Security Council adoption of a compromise resolution calling for “urgent steps to immediately allow safe andunhindered and expanded humanitarian access” to Gaza and creating “the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities”, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard, said:
“This is a much-needed resolution – all efforts to address the unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza must be welcomed, but it remains woefully insufficient in the face of the ongoing carnage and extensive destruction wrought by the government of Israel’s attacks in the occupied Gaza Strip. Nothing short of an immediate ceasefire is enough to alleviate the mass civilian suffering we are witnessing.
“The vote on the resolution – which was watered down significantly from earlier versions to avoid a US veto fails to call for an immediate halt in the fighting, instead including a call to ‘create conditions’ for a cessation of hostilities. Given the staggering death toll – with more than 20,000 killed in over two months, and the horrifying scale of destruction and devastation in Gaza this is simply unacceptable.
“It is disgraceful that the US was able to stall and use the threat of its veto power to force the UN Security Council to weaken a much-needed call for an immediate end to attacks by all parties.