US blocks Russian bid to amend draft UNSC resolution for Gaza truce
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The UNSC has approved a resolution on Gaza calling for extended humanitarian pauses.
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United Nations Security Council voted on a new US resolution on the war in Gaza, which was vetoed with Russia voting against it, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023, at UN headquarters (AP)
On Wednesday, the United States voted against Russia's amendment to a Malta-drafted UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution on Gaza, which includes a call for a humanitarian truce, a Sputnik correspondent reported.
The amendment was rejected with a 1-5 vote, with nine abstentions. If passed, it would have called for an immediate, durable, and sustained humanitarian truce in Gaza.
However, the UNSC approved a resolution on Gaza, said the Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Zhang Jun, who presides over the UNSC during the month of November.
The resolution calls for "urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip for a sufficient number of days to enable, consistent with international humanitarian law, the full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access for United Nations humanitarian agencies," in addition to a call for the unconditional release of captives held by the Palestinian Resistance.
It further demands that all parties abide by their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law, with regard to the protection of civilians, especially children.
Read next: Iran urges immediate ceasefire in Gaza
Earlier last month, the UNSC voted against a Russia-proposed draft resolution to resolve the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. The resolution received four votes in favor, five against, and six abstentions.
"We regret that the council once again has found itself a hostage to the ego, to the selfish intentions of the Western bloc of countries," Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said after the vote.
Following other states' draft resolution proposals, the Russian mission to the United Nations included amendments to its resolution to condemn the indiscriminate Israeli strikes against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and call for a humanitarian ceasefire amid the dire situation for the civilians there.
Humanitarian truce or pause?
It is worth noting that the difference between a truce and a humanitarian pause, which is being propagated by Western media, is that a humanitarian pause, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), is defined as a "temporary cessation of hostilities purely for humanitarian purposes" and requires "the agreement of all relevant parties," stressing that typically it is implemented for "a defined period and specific geographic area."
