The US vetoes a supported UN decision demanding a direct humanitarian ceasefire, whereas ICJ hearings proceed.
Right here’s how issues stand on Wednesday, February 21, 2024:
Preventing and humanitarian disaster
- Medical doctors With out Borders, identified by its French initials MSF, stated the Israeli navy has bombed a shelter internet hosting MSF workers in al-Mawasi close to Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
- Within the 24 hours between Monday and Tuesday afternoon, 103 Palestinians have been reported killed and 142 injured by Israeli assaults on Gaza, in response to the UN Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
- The World Meals Programme stated it has paused deliveries of food to remoted northern Gaza due to assaults and the breakdown of civil order within the area. The weakening of the help operations threatens to deepen distress throughout the territory, the place Israel’s air and floor offensive has killed over 29,000 Palestinians.
Regional tensions and Diplomacy
- The US vetoed an Arab-backed and broadly supported UN resolution demanding a direct humanitarian ceasefire in Israel’s conflict on Gaza.
- Earlier than the vote, Algeria’s UN Ambassador Amar Bendjama stated: “A vote in favour of this draft decision is a help to the Palestinians’ proper to life. Conversely, voting towards it implies an endorsement of the brutal violence and collective punishment inflicted towards them.”
- China’s Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun stated that the US’s veto “stifles” an “overwhelming consensus” among the many UNSC’s members on a ceasefire in Gaza.
- Individually, South Africa argued on the United Nations’ prime courtroom that Israel is accountable for apartheid towards the Palestinians and that Israel’s occupation of land searched for a Palestinian state is “inherently and essentially unlawful”. Israel rejects such claims.
- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has described Israeli troopers’ reported looting of houses in Gaza as a “symptom of genocide and ethnic cleaning”.
- And in Yemen, the Houthi rebels claimed they struck an Israeli cargo ship, the MSC Silver, within the Gulf of Aden close to the doorway to the Purple Sea with plenty of missiles.
At at the moment’s session, Amb. Dr. Riyad Mansour condemned the Safety Council’s failure to name for a #ceasefire in #Gaza “By the point this session ends, over 25 #Palestinians might be lifeless as a result of Council’s inaction, It means extra infants might be murdered.” @AlgeriaUN @UN #UNSC pic.twitter.com/J9d0LT3bvs
— State of Palestine (@Palestine_UN) February 21, 2024
Violence within the occupied West Financial institution
- Israeli forces destroyed infrastructure and fired reside rounds in Jenin, as raids on dozens of houses proceed within the metropolis within the occupied West Financial institution, in response to the Palestinian information company Wafa.
- The Israeli navy stated it had focused a “terrorist cell” with an air strike in Jenin, killing three folks. Palestinian armed teams stated they’d responded through the use of explosive gadgets towards Israeli navy automobiles.
- Israeli forces additionally arrested a minor within the city of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem.
