UN to discuss Israel-Hamas war after hostage killings
Israel has requested a meeting of the United Nations Security Council following the killing of six hostages by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
A wide view of the Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, on May 29, 2024. Credit: Rick Bajornas/U.N. Photo.
The United Nations Security Council will discuss the conflict between Hamas and Israel and the crisis in the Palestinian territories after the killing of six hostages in the Gaza Strip.
Even routine bureaucratic questions about the meeting are sparking disagreements between UN members.
Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon’s wrote on X early Tuesday that, “following my urgent request, the UN Security Council will finally convene on Wednesday for the first time since the October 7 massacre to hold an official discussion on the hostages”.
The UN ambassador from Malta, which served as Security Council president in April, wrote back to Danon on X that the council had adopted a November 15 resolution that called for the release of all the hostages during humanitarian pauses in the fighting between Israel and Hamas.
“At the time of adoption your representative stated in the Council that Israel will not implement the resolution,” Vanessa Frazier wrote.
“Stop spreading misinformation.”
France, the United Kingdom and the United States backed Israel’s request for a Security Council meeting.
Israel wrote in a press release on Tuesday that “the Security Council must condemn the terrorist organisation Hamas and demand the immediate release of the abductees”.
Algeria, another Security Council member, separately requested a meeting on the Middle East crisis that will be part of Wednesday’s meeting.
The death of the six hostages whose bodies were recovered by Israeli troops over the weekend underscores the urgency to get a ceasefire deal and the release of the remaining captives, the White House said on Tuesday.
“Clearly what happened over the weekend underscores how important it is to get this done as quickly as possible,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters in a briefing, adding that Hamas was responsible for their deaths.
The Israeli Health Ministry said autopsies had determined the hostages were shot at close range and died on Thursday or Friday.
The army said the bodies were recovered from a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
The Israeli military said it killed eight Palestinian gunmen, including a senior Hamas commander who took part in the October 7 attacks in Israel, at a command centre near the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City.
A statement said Ahmed Fozi Nazer Muhammad Wadia had taken command of a “massacre of civilians carried out by Hamas terrorists” in Israel’s Netiv HaAsara community near the Gaza border.
There was no response from Hamas.
The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they were battling Israeli forces in the Zeitoun suburb of Gaza City, and also in Rafah and Khan Younis in the south.
Nevertheless, the World Health Organisation said that it was ahead of its targets for polio vaccinations in Gaza on Tuesday, day three of a mass campaign, and had inoculated about a quarter of children under 10.
The campaign relies on daily eight-hour pauses in fighting between Israel and Hamas militants in specific areas of the besieged enclave.
Diplomatic efforts to secure a permanent ceasefire and release foreign and Israeli hostages held in Gaza and return many Palestinians jailed by Israel have stalled, however.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israeli troops would remain in the Philadelphi corridor on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, one of the main sticking points in reaching a deal to end the fighting and return hostages.
Hamas, which wants an agreement to end the war and see Israeli forces out of all of the Gaza Strip, says such a condition, among some others, would prevent a deal.
Netanyahu says the war can only end when Hamas is eradicated.
with AP
First of AP.. The hostages didn’t “ Die”” they were MURDERED with a bullet in the back of their head, by sewage dwelling HAMAS TERRORISTS!
Second did the UN just wake up or are they – as usual – cowtowing to something, like … elections coming up?..
Time to dismantle that useless and very corrupt institution once and for all.
Hopefully, there will be no permanent cease fire until Hamas is dust and the hostages are ALL released!