Israel-Hamas war: UN Security Council faces fresh delay

A planned United Nations Security Council vote on a cease-fire resolution for Gaza has been delayed yet again. 

The vote, originally scheduled for Monday, was postponed several times throughout Tuesday as members sought to find language they could agree upon regarding hostilities between Israel and the militant Islamist group Hamas.

The US, an Israeli ally and permanent Security Council member with veto power, has objected to the use of the word "cease-fire" in the past and requested to delay the vote until Wednesday. 

News outlet AFP cited diplomatic sources at the UN as saying the latest wording calls for a "suspension" of hostilities. 

US National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby on Tuesday said: "We're still working through the modalities of the resolution. It's important for us that the rest of the world understand what's at stake here and what Hamas did on October 7 and how Israel has a right to defend itself against those threats."

Hamas, labeled a terror organization by Israel, the US, the EU, Germany and others, attacked Israel on October 7, killing nearly 1,200 people of all ages, most of them civilians.

They also took 240 individuals hostage, many of whom are still being held in Gaza.

But global pressure has been building on Israel to end its hostilities that have led to the deaths of nearly 20,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children.

Even the US has made calls for more protections for people in Gaza, despite vetoing a previous UN Security Council resolution calling for an "immediate humanitarian cease-fire."

This week's push for a Security Council vote was put forth by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after the 193-member UN General Assembly last week voted 153-10 in favor of a non-binding resolution (with 23 abstentions) calling for a halt to hostilities.

Since the first draft of the Security Council resolution was presented on Sunday its wording has been repeatedly watered down. The latest draft in circulation calls for "the urgent suspension of hostilities to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and for urgent steps toward a sustainable cessation of hostilities."

It also calls for "the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages," and the unhindered delivery of aid, with enhanced international monitoring.

Although the text condemns attacks against civilians and acts of terrorism it does not mention Hamas by name, something that has angered the US in previous iterations.

Margaret Harris of the World Health Organization told DW on Tuesday that the casualty figures coming out of Gaza were lower than the actual number of dead.

"If anything, they're an underestimate. Because at the moment, the way casualties, especially deaths are counted: You certify somebody dead, you count the people in the morgue. Now, the morgues are in hospitals. We've only got seven or eight hospitals functioning in any shape or form at the moment. So, if anything, what we're hearing is an underestimate." 

The veracity of numbers released by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry has repeatedly been called into question by Israel which says Hamas doesn't distinguish between fighters and civilians but Harris claimed they could be trusted.

"You also look at who died and how old they were. 70% of them are women and children," Harris said. "We've got something like 8,000 children killed now and the hospitals are full of injured children."

Harris voiced disappointment that the international community had not "stopped the hostilities" and found a way to negotiate the release of hostages taken by Hamas in its October 7 terror attack, saying, "There was much, much, much more that should have been done by negotiation. Not through violence." 

Harris said she was in no position to propose answers to resolving political impasses as she is a doctor and not a diplomat, but she warned: "Currently our international system is failing. And is certainly failing in terms of health because we're seeing this terrible loss, these terrible injuries."

"If those children — who have lost their limbs, they have their skin burned — survive their injuries, they're going to be disabled for life. You know, we are creating a generation of very deeply, deeply harmed people. And that is not something we as the world can afford to have happen." 

Germany's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday claimed it was working to "stabilize" the situation in beleaguered Gaza, announcing the delivery of 120 large tents to al-Arish in Egypt.

Special Representative Deike Potzel appeared in a Foreign Ministry video posted on social media, announcing that a German Bundeswehr plane had just arrived with the first of three deliveries expected in the coming days — a consignment of tents.

Two subsequent flights will deliver 10,000 mattresses, 5,000 beds, and an unspecified number of water filters, she said.

Potzel said Germany had greatly increased aid to Gaza and would be providing another €200 million ($220 million) in support for various humanitarian groups from the UN, as well as NGOs. 

She also described scenes at Egyptian hospitals treating Gazans, and emphasized that here, too, Germany had shown support by recently delivering incubators and medical equipment requested by Egypt.

Potzel said, "Germany wants to help people in Gaza," and vowed Berlin was actively pursuing humanitarian foreign policy at all levels in order to "ease the suffering of those in Gaza." 

Another group of foreign nationals were able to leave Gaza on Tuesday, including 22 German passport holders. 

The number was confirmed by the Egyptian Red Crescent.

They were among roughly 100 foreigners and Palestinian foreign passport holders scheduled to leave via the Rafah border crossing from Gaza into Egypt.

In November, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry reported that an estimated 7,000 foreign nationals visiting from 60 countries were stuck in Gaza and trying to get out.

Hundreds of foreigners and dual-national Palestinians have traveled to Rafah since Hamas' terror attack on Israel on October 7 and Israel's subsequent airstrikes on Gaza. It is unclear how many still remain in the territory. 

A review board reversed a decision by Meta, which owns the social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, to remove two videos related to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

One of the cases concerned a video posted on Instagram that seemed to show Palestinian casualties in the aftermath of the  al-Shifa hospital blast in Gaza.

The second case involved a video purportedly showing Hamas taking an Israeli hostage.

Meta established the quasi-independent Oversight Board three years ago to review content decisions on Facebook and Instagram.

After the board selected the content for review, Meta restored the videos and added a message warning viewers of the violence in the footage.

The board stated that it disagreed with Meta's decision to restrict the content from being recommended to users. It urged Meta to "respond more quickly to changing circumstances on the ground, which affect the balance between the values of voice and safety."

A Meta spokesperson said no further action would be taken since the board made no policy recommendations.

Warning sirens sounded in Tel Aviv on Tuesday as Hamas said it had fired a barrage of rockets toward the coastal Israeli city.

Sirens also rang in Jaffa, Bat Yam, Rishon Lezion, Kfar Chabad and Beit Dagan. 

"Even after 74 days of the war against Hamas, sirens sounded in central Israel and millions of Israelis ran to seek shelter," said the Israel Defense Force (IDF) on X, formerly Twitter. 

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The Islamist militant group Hamas, which is listed as a terrorist organization by several countries, has repeatedly fired projectiles at Israel since its terror attacks on the country on October 7. Most of those have been intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system.

A report by Reuters news agency quoted UN officials voicing anger over the situation in hospitals in the Gaza Strip.

Most of Gaza's hospitals are no longer operating. Those that are open struggle to cope with limited supplies and increasing arrivals of injured patients.

"I'm furious that children who are recovering from amputations in hospitals are then killed in those hospitals," said James Elder, a spokesperson for the UN children's agency UNICEF.

"So where do children and families go? They're not safe in hospitals, they're not safe in shelters, and they're certainly not safe in so-called safe zones," he said.

The UNICEF spokesperson said the Nasser Hospital had been shelled twice in the past 48 hours. The facility is located in the southern city of Khan Younis and is one of the Gaza Strip's few hospitals still operating.

Meanwhile, World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Margaret Harris called the situation in the Palestinian territory's hospitals "unconscionable."

"The very basics, they do not have them. One of my colleagues described people lying on the floor in severe pain, in agony, but they weren't asking for pain relief. They were asking for water," she said. "It's beyond belief that the world is allowing this to continue."

The Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip said Tuesday that an Israeli strike killed at least 20 people in Rafah, a southern city near the Egyptian border.

The Associated Press reported, citing its reporters on the ground, that a strike on a home in Rafah where displaced people were sheltering killed at least 25 people.

The border town, where Israel had told Palestinians to seek shelter as its military operates in the north, has repeatedly come under bombardment in recent days. 

Israel said later that its forces killed a prominent Hamas financier in an airstrike on Rafah, but did not specify when it occurred or if others were killed or wounded.

Israel has insisted that it does not target civilians.   

More than 19,000 Palestinians have been killed since October, according to the ministry. 

Figures released by the Gaza Health Ministry came under scrutiny after conflicting accounts of deaths in a Gaza hospital blast earlier in the war, although the ministry's numbers have lived up to UN scrutiny in previous wars.

An estimate by Israeli authorities of Palestinian deaths in Gaza earlier this month was less than what Gaza authorities estimated by around 1,000. The Gaza Health Ministry does not differentiate between militants and civilians in its count of people killed and injured.

Germany's Development Minister Svenja Schulze is visiting Israel and the Palestinian territories as part of a fact-finding mission, her office said.

She is set to meet members of Israeli civil society and families of those affected by the October 7 Hamas terror attacks, including residents of a kibbutz near the border with the Gaza Strip.

Schulze is also expected to meet Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh. She is also set to visit the al-Amari refugee camp in the occupied West Bank with representatives of the UN Palestinian Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and review the conditions of its health and educational facilities.

Her trip was scheduled for last week but was canceled due to an airport closure in Geneva.

On his trips to Paris and Rome on Tuesday, British Foreign Minister David Cameron will urge allies to improve coordination to address the "desperate" humanitarian situation in Gaza, according to a statement from his office.

"As we face some of the greatest challenges to international security in a lifetime, our response must be one of strength and resilience with our European allies," Cameron said.

"From the desperate humanitarian situation in Gaza to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's brutality in Ukraine, it is more important than ever to strengthen our alliances and make sure our voice is heard," he added.

According to the statement, Cameron will reiterate his support for a "sustainable cease-fire" in Gaza — a term he had used in a joint article penned with his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, in a recent Sunday Times edition. 

"We do not believe that calling right now for a general and immediate cease-fire, hoping it somehow becomes permanent, is the way forward ... We must do all we can to pave the way to a sustainable cease-fire, leading to a sustainable peace," they wrote.

Cameron and Baerbock stressed Israel's right to defend itself and called for humanitarian pauses to allow aid into Gaza and facilitate the release of hostages held by Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by several countries. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on commercial ships in the Red Sea during a call with Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan on Monday.

"The Secretary also condemned continued attacks by the Houthis on commercial vessels operating in international waters in the southern Red Sea and urged cooperation among all partners to uphold maritime security," the State Department said in a statement.

The Houthis, who have Iran's support, have been attacking commercial vessels in the Red Sea, saying that such assaults are "in support of the oppressed Palestinian people."

On Monday, oil and gas giant BP announced that it would temporarily pause all transits through the Red Sea.

"In light of the deteriorating security situation for shipping in the Red Sea, BP has decided to temporarily pause all transits," the company said in a statement.

Several countries have now agreed to start joint patrolling in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden to prevent Houthi attacks on commercial ships.

The United Nations Security Council has decided to delay the voting on a resolution seeking a new cease-fire in Gaza to Tuesday.

The voting was postponed to avoid another US veto as negotiations continue over the wording of the resolution that the US, Israel's closest ally, is likely to object to.

The latest draft of the resolution was submitted by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which had requested the vote set for 5:00 p.m. (2200 GMT) Monday to be postponed until Tuesday morning, according to diplomatic sources.

The original draft had called for an "urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities" in Gaza to allow "safe and unhindered humanitarian access" in the Palestinian enclave.

However, to avoid the US veto, the language is likely to be weakened to a "suspension" of hostilities, diplomats told the Associated Press news agency on the condition of anonymity.

The draft also calls for the "immediate and unconditional release of all hostages" and condemns "all violence and hostilities against civilians, and all acts of terrorism."

Earlier this month, the US had vetoed a Security Council resolution that would have called for a "humanitarian cease-fire" in the battered Palestinian territory where Israel has continued bombardment in response to the October 7 terror attack by Hamas, the Islamist militant group ruling Gaza that is recognized by several countries as a terrorist organization.