3:00 PM
The Security Council session for the afternoon has begun, but it’s meeting first over the situation in Western Sahara, and then will meet to consider the UN Verification Mission in Colombia.
The emergency meeting was reportedly called for by the United Arab Emirates, the sole Arab nation on the 15-member Council, after Israel expanded its operations into Gaza over the weekend.
The head of the UN agency supporting Palestine refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, and a senior director from the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Lisa Doughten (on behalf of relief chief Martin Griffiths), are expected to brief ambassadors, along with the head of the UN Children’s Fund, Catherine Russell.
Extensive destruction has been caused by Israeli airstrikes in the north of Gaza.
In a sign of civil order starting to break down in the ravaged enclave, UN-operated aid warehouses were raided this weekend by thousands of desperate people who took wheat flour, hygiene supplies and other basic survival goods.
Meanwhile, hospitals in northern Gaza are hanging on by a thread, according to humanitarians, amid “repeated evacuation orders” by Israeli forces. Medical staff working there and civilians seeking shelter have reportedly refused to leave, saying evacuation would mean death for patients on ventilators and in intensive care units.
On Friday, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favour to adopt a resolution on the crisis, calling for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities.”
So far since the crisis erupted with the Hamas terror attacks of 7 October and retaliatory bombardment of Gaza by Israeli forces, two Russian resolutions have been struck down either through the veto or failure to gain enough support.
A Brazilian resolution was also vetoed by the United States.
The Security Council in a crisis: Explained
For a reminder of how the Security Council works during a crisis and negotiates resolutions or ends up in deadlock, visit our explainer here.