United Nations and other aid officials warned on Saturday that a new U.N. Security Council resolution calling for stepped-up aid delivery to the increasingly hungry and sick civilians of the Gaza Strip would fail to stop the spiraling humanitarian crisis because it did not demand a full halt to the fighting.
The resolution approved on Friday directs the secretary-general of the U.N. to appoint a special coordinator for aid to Gaza and establish a mechanism to speed up delivery of desperately needed food, water, fuel and medicine, but it does not mandate a truce.
Even if enough aid were to cross the border, aid officials said, without a cease-fire, they would be unable to distribute it amid Israel’s frequent airstrikes and a ground invasion that has turned much of the territory into an active combat zone.