Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday it was the responsibility of the United Nations Security Council and the international community to press Israel to open all land crossings into the Gaza Strip.
The resolution was welcomed by both Hamas and its rival Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas. But Qatari and Egyptian mediators have not received formal replies from Hamas or Israel to the UN-backed truce proposal, an official close to the talks said.
“The responsibility of the Security Council and all parties of the international community remains great in putting pressure on Israel in order to open all land crossings into the Gaza Strip and hand them over to the new government to let all relief and medical supplies in,” he said during a conference.
Meanwhile, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi urged Israel to abide by the United Nations Security Council resolution for a plan to end the war in Gaza.
Speaking at a joint press conference in Jordan yesterday, Safadi said the credibility of international law was at stake if Israel refused to abide by the resolution.
“As long as Israel continues its aggression, it will become more of a pariah state,” Safadi added.
Shoukry also stated that the Security Council’s resolution was “obligatory and should be respected”.
The United Nations Security Council on Monday backed a proposal outlined by US President Joe Biden for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
During the same news conference, UN aid chief Martin Griffith said the situation in Gaza’s city of Rafah had turned into a “worse nightmare than was predicted”.
Griffith added that if allegations that the United States’ Gaza pier was used in Israel’s Rafah military operation were true, “they are very concerning”. The joint press conference took place shortly after an international conference discussing humanitarian response to Gaza concluded in Jordan.
The Jordanian foreign minister said the conference urged opening border crossings in Gaza, saying that obstacles put by Israel were in “violation of international law”.
Also yesterday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced more than $400 million in humanitarian assistance to Palestinians at the conference as he called for other donors to also step up.
Blinken said that Israel has taken some important steps to open more crossings to address obstacles to the delivery of assistance in Gaza, but that it can and must do more. He also called on Israel to take further steps to reduce civilian casualties.
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