TEHRAN- The UN Security Council has passed resolution 2720, which calls on more aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip but falls short of calling for an end to the indiscriminate Israeli bombardment of the enclave. 

It has left many countries and international humanitarian organizations furious with the United States for obstructing yet another international effort to end the Israeli massacres against civilians in Gaza. 

The resolution passed with 13 votes in favor, no votes against, and two abstentions. 

Russia and the United States abstained from voting but offered completely polarizing reasons for doing so. 

The goal of the second Security Council resolution over the Israeli war on Gaza was introduced by the UAE to end the war in Gaza. 

After days of dispute between the United Arab Emirates and the United States, which opposed many parts of the draft text with threats to veto it, a very watered-down version of the original text has been passed. 

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the American ambassador to the UN, said that the U.S. was "deeply disappointed, appalled … that the council was not able to condemn" Hamas’s al-Aqsa Storm Operation on 7 October. 

“I can’t understand why some council members are standing in the way and why they refuse to condemn" the operation, she said. 

"I will never understand why some council members have remained silent," Thomas-Greenfield further said in reference to the al-Aqsa Storm Operation. 

Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, condemned the U.S. for "playing an extremely underhanded game of forcing into the text an essential license for Israel to kill Palestinian civilians in Gaza under the pretext and record of creating conditions for cessation of hostilities." 

“The United States goes around twisting arms in the region, not for the sake of peace as my American colleague asserts, but for the sake of ensuring the short-term interests of Washington,” he warned. 

"By signing off on this, the council would essentially be giving the Israeli armed forces complete freedom of movement for further clearing of the Gaza Strip, and anyone who votes in favour of the text as it is currently … would bear responsibility for that essentially becoming complicit in the destruction of Gaza. 

"Moreover, the text of the draft has lost a reference to condemnations of all indiscriminate attacks on civilians. What signal … this sends to the international community is that the security council is giving Israel a green light for war crimes," he explained. 

Dai Bing, charge d'affaires of China's permanent mission to the United Nations, urged "Israel to immediately reverse course, cease its indiscriminate military attacks and stop its collective punishment of the population of Gaza as an occupying power. Israel has an obligation to safeguard the humanitarian needs for the population of Gaza, and to guarantee the safety of humanitarian workers in Gaza." 

Dai also pointed out, "We expect urgent actions to be taken pursuant to this council resolution to expand humanitarian assistance to Gaza, including by making full use of the Kerem Shalom crossing and opening of additional crossings to ensure the safe and unimpeded entry of sufficient humanitarian supplies into Gaza." 

While the UN Security Council backed the resolution calling for more humanitarian assistance for the Gaza Strip, the UN Secretary General said the way the Israeli regime is conducting its military offensives in Gaza is creating "massive obstacles" to distributing humanitarian aid. 

Antonio Guterres said after the vote that he hoped aid delivery would improve, "but a humanitarian ceasefire is the only way to begin to meet the desperate needs of people in Gaza and end their ongoing nightmare." 

While the resolution will not stop the Israeli bombardment of Gaza and does not seek to do so after the U.S. threats to veto the vote, it only calls for "urgent steps" to establish "conditions" for a sustainable ceasefire, which are open to many different interpretations. 

It is quite clear that the regime will not even adhere to a humanitarian resolution judging by its track record of respecting UN resolutions. 

Palestine’s ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said, "The council is now meeting after over 20,000 Palestinians have been killed, almost half of them children. And 60,000 people have been wounded, and 2 million Palestinians have been forcefully displaced. It is meeting as homes, shelters, schools, hospitals have been destroyed, and as hunger and disease are spreading like wildfire." 

"There is no way to stop the war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide underway, but [by] an immediate ceasefire. Ceasefire again. There is no way to start addressing the…humanitarian catastrophe, but [by] an immediate ceasefire. Ceasefire again. There is no way to release those held captives but [by] an immediate ceasefire," he added. 

Hamas called the resolution an "insufficient step" for meeting the impoverished enclave’s needs. 

"During the past five days, the U.S. administration has worked hard to empty this resolution of its essence, and to issue it in this weak formula... It defies the will of the international community and the United Nations General Assembly in stopping the Israeli regime's aggression against our defenseless Palestinian people," a Hamas statement said. 

The humanitarian organization Mercy Corps released its own statement on the resolution, saying that "nothing short of a ceasefire and an end to the siege will prevent this catastrophic and preventable loss of life." 

The organization said: "While we are relieved to finally see agreement in the Security Council on the gravity and urgency of the humanitarian situation, the failure of this resolution to address what is most needed by the 2 million people in Gaza facing starvation cannot be called an achievement." 

It further warned, "Without an immediate and sustainable pause in hostilities, women and children will continue to die in bombardments and aid organizations will not be able to scratch the surface in meeting needs. 

We cannot deliver aid to 2.3 million people under active bombardment and by trucking it in. Nothing short of a ceasefire and an end to the siege will prevent this catastrophic and preventable loss of life.” 

Among the long list of humanitarian groups that have responded to the resolution, the International Rescue Committee said that "with more than 20,000 Palestinians killed and latest food insecurity numbers showing unprecedented threat of starvation in Gaza, much more is clearly needed…" 

The committee added, "We reiterate that the only way fully to protect Palestinian lives, enable a sufficient humanitarian response, and offer the best chance of hostage release, is to stop the fighting. From a humanitarian point of view, the failure of the UNSC to demand an immediate and sustained ceasefire is unjustifiable." 

What has become very clear is that the majority of the world, and on three occasions now at the United Nations, is calling on the Israeli regime to end its indiscriminate bombardment of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. 

This is while the U.S. stands, along with Britain, in calling for the regime to carry on killing.
The world told the Israeli regime to stop, but the U.S. said to carry on. 

UN Security Council resolution falls short of ending indiscriminate Israeli attacks.