Nearly six months and 31 988 murders later, a ceasefire resolution on Gaza might go ahead when the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) votes on Friday. At the same time, CIA and Mossad chiefs are expected in Doha, Qatar, to finalise a truce-for-captives deal.
Apartheid Israel’s chief sympathiser and enabler, the United States, called for an “immediate ceasefire” in a draft resolution on which a vote is imminent. It also pushed for a deal that would see the return of captives taken by Hamas during Operation Al Aqsa Flood in October.
The 26-paragraph draft, due to be voted upon, called for “the immediate, safe, sustained and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance at scale directly to the Palestinian civilian population throughout the Gaza Strip”.
SMread: Erase to replace: Palestinian territory being wiped out
Ceasefire
While Israel relentlessly pressed on with its War of Extermination in Gaza, leaders in the West did anything but push for a ceasefire. The word “ceasefire” seemed absent from their vocab, even with a mounting number of civilians killed.
Now, pressure from a number of directions has forced them to utter the word. Late on Thursday, a declaration by the European Union (EU) also called for a ceasefire. The text was most concerned about the “imminent risk of famine caused by insufficient entry of aid into Gaza”.
But Rashida Tlaib, the sole Palestinian American member of the American Congress, on Thursday stressed the urgency of a “lasting, permanent ceasefire”.
She said: “What we are witnessing, all around this world, is the Israeli government using starvation as a weapon of war. The starvation is a result of the total siege on Gaza and the intentional targeting of local food production, infrastructure and obstruction of aid convoys.”
Meanwhile, speaking ahead of a meeting with neo-Nazi leader Benjamin Netanyahu, US secretary of state Antony Blinken reiterated US opposition to an offensive in Rafah. More than a million Palestinians are sheltering in the southern Gaza city as bombs rain down elsewhere.
“A major military operation in Rafah would be a mistake, something we don’t support. And, it’s also not necessary to deal with Hamas, which is necessary,” he said at a news conference in Cairo, Egypt.
