UNITED NATIONS: Algeria will present a draft UN resolution seeking an end to the killings in Rafah as Israel attacks the Gaza city, said its ambassador on Tuesday after a Security Council meeting.
Rejecting pressure from the United States and other Western nations, Israel has been carrying out military operations in Rafah, which is crowded with people who have fled fighting elsewhere in Gaza.
An Israeli strike Sunday killed 45 people at a refugee camp for displaced people, said the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, global condemnation.
Ambassador Amar Bendjama told reporters that the resolution will have a short text, a decisive text, to stop killings in Rafah.
It was Algeria that requested Tuesday’s meeting of the council after the Sunday strike.
A civil defense official in Gaza said another Israeli strike on a camp west of Rafah on Tuesday killed at least 21 more people.
The Algerian ambassador did not reveal when the resolution might be put to a vote.
Chinese ambassador Fu Cong, said the voting could be done as early as possible due to the worsening situation in Gaza.
Ambassador of France Nicolas de Riviere before the council meeting said the time has come for the council to take action adding this is a matter of life and death.
The council has struggled to find a united voice since the war between Israel and Hamas started on October 7.
After passing two resolutions stressing the need for humanitarian aid to people in Gaza, in March the council adopted a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.
The US is frustrated with how Israel is waging the war and its mounting civilian death toll.
However, the White House said that Israel’s offensive in Rafah was not a full-scale operation that would breach President Joe Biden’s “red lines,” adding that it had no plans to change its policy toward Israel.
When Asked about the new Algerian draft resolution, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said they are waiting to see it.
