Palestinians check a destroyed house after Israeli airstrikes in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on Dec. 20, 2023, amid continuing battles between Israel and Hamas. (Credit: Said Khatib/AFP)
UN delays again
The UN Security Council vote on a Gaza cease-fire resolution was postponed once again this evening. Originally scheduled for Monday, it is now scheduled for tomorrow. A source within the UN headquarters in New York told L’Orient Today that it’s likely to happen in the morning, but no time is set.
A clergyman sits at the Church of the Nativity, believed to be built above the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the biblical city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank on Dec. 20, 2023 ahead of Christmas amid the ongoing Hamas-Israel war in the Gaza Strip. Church leaders in Jerusalem and the Bethlehem city council took the decision last month to forego "any unnecessarily festive" Christmas celebrations in solidarity with Gazans. (Credit: Hazem Bader/AFP)
In a Beirut press conference, Hamas blamed the US for slowing down the process and therefore remaining complicit in the bloodshed. It seems as though the now three-day-long delay in the vote is because the 15-member council is trying to avoid further deadlock — in other words, trying to negotiate with the US, which vetoed the council’s Dec. 9 attempt to pass a cease-fire resolution.
So far, the text has been amended from calling for an “urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities,” to instead calling for “the urgent suspension of hostilities to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and for urgent steps towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”
People search through the rubble after an Israeli strike on the Ali ben Abi Taleb Mosque in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Dec. 20, 2023, amid ongoing battles between Hamas and Israel. (Credit: Mahmud Hams/AFP)
Conflicting US policies
Today there were reports of disagreement on policy within the Biden administration. The US president seemed hesitant to say anything too forward regarding yesterday’s diplomatic acceleration towards renewed truce and exchange negotiations, but told reporters: "We're pushing it. I don't — there's no expectation at this point. But we are pushing it." Meanwhile, White House spokesperson John Kirby said the discussions are “very serious.”
Smoke billows on the outskirts of the village of Kfarshuba, along Lebanon's southern border with northern Israel following Israeli bombardment on Dec. 20, 2023, amid increasing cross-border clashes. (Credit: AFP)
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced much less enthusiasm for the negotiations, saying there will be no cease-fire “until we've achieved all the objectives we've set ourselves: the elimination of Hamas, the release of our hostages and the end of the threat from Gaza.”
Haniyeh’s Cairo meetings
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh traveled to Egypt for the first time in over a month to meet with intelligence officials about a potential cease-fire and humanitarian aid for the enclave. He came away from the day of discussions having rejected an Israeli offer for a one-week cessation in hostilities in return for the release of dozens of hostages, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Haniyeh said Hamas would not begin any negotiations unless a cease-fire is put into effect first.
A fireball erupts after Israeli strike over Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Dec. 20, 2023. (Credit: Said Khatib/AFP)
More international criticism
Referring to the Israeli army’s offensive in Gaza — which has killed over 20,000 people according to today’s death toll from the Gaza Health Ministry — French President Emmanuel Macron urged Israel to “stop this response because it is not appropriate, because all lives are worth the same and we defend them,” saying that fighting “terrorism” does not mean Israel can “flatten Gaza or attack civilian populations indiscriminately.”