Most members of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday rejected Israel’s reported plan to channel humanitarian aid to Gazans through third-party contractors, as the U.S. placed full blame on Hamas for the crisis in the enclave.
"The U.K. calls on Israel to lift its block on aid," U.K. envoy Barbara Woodward said at the Council's session on Gaza, which was requested by the U.K., France, Denmark, Slovenia and Greece.
Citing the latest analysis by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), Woodward said that "tons of food are currently sitting, rotting at the border, blocked from reaching people who are starving. This is cruel and it is inexcusable, and it risks further deaths that should be avoidable."
She further rejected Israel's aid delivery plan, saying it "seeks to deliver political or military objectives or puts vulnerable civilians at risk."
"We call on Israel to urgently engage with the U.N. to assure a return to delivery of aid in line with humanitarian principles," she said.
France’s envoy to the U.N., Jerome Bonnafont, also rejected the Israeli aid plan.
"The modalities planned within this mechanism run counter to international law and do not allow to meet the needs of the people," he said.
"Israel has to comply with international humanitarian law.”
Denmark's U.N. envoy Christina Markus Lassen echoed her European colleagues and emphasized that the people of Gaza do not need a new humanitarian mechanism but an end to the aid blockade at the borders without conditions.
Slovenia's Samuel Zbogar argued that the Council members are "obviously not" doing all that they could for Gaza and stressed the need for Israel to end the aid blockade.
Similarly, Zbogar rejected Israel's aid delivery plan and argued that it does not "reach the minimum bar" of humanitarian principles.
"Famine is spreading at high speed," Russian envoy to the U.N. Vassily Nebenzia said, rejecting the plan, which he said is dragging the U.N. "to become an accomplice of their (Israel's) own military operation and thus endangering the neutrality and impartiality of humanitarian activity."
"This mechanism, unfortunately, doesn't spare humanitarians’ lives," Nebenzia noted, urging Israel to lift the aid blockade.
China’s envoy to the U.N., Fu Cong, emphasized the need to resume humanitarian assistance and strongly rejected the Israeli plan.
"Humanitarian assistance must not be weaponized, and principles of impartiality, independence and neutrality must be held at all times," he said.
Meanwhile, U.S. Charge d'Affaires ad interim Dorothy Shea once again solely accused the Palestinian group Hamas of being responsible for the suffering and ongoing attacks in Gaza.
She reiterated U.S. support for Israel and said that Israel's proposed aid mechanism "has been established to provide a secure mechanism capable of delivering aid directly to those in need, without Hamas stealing, looting, or leveraging this assistance for its own ends."
"We call upon the United Nations humanitarian organizations and the international community to work with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in providing assistance to civilians," she said, pledging to continue discussions on the matter.
