US Ready To Voice UN DK Resolution When Gazans Are Threatened With Starvation And Death Toll Reaches 20 Thousand

Illustration of the UN Security Council meeting. (Wikimedia Commons/UNSomalia)

JAKARTA - The United States is ready to vote for a resolution to the United Nations Security Council regarding the Gaza crisis, when the death toll in the Palestinian enclave reaches 20,000, while the food security agency says residents there are threatened with starvation.

"I just want to share with you that we have worked hard and diligently over the past week with the United Arab Emirates, with other countries, with Egypt, to produce a resolution we can support. And we have that resolution now. We are ready to vote on that," said US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Thursday evening., reported CNN December 22.

Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield spoke after a closed meeting in which the Security Council again postponed voting on the resolution, calling for a halt to fighting between Israel and Hamas and increased humanitarian aid to Gaza.

The vote, which was originally scheduled for Monday this week and has been delayed four times, is now expected to take place on Friday local time.

Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield did not explain how he would vote on the move, but said "this would be a resolution if the resolution was proposed as well as any that we can support."

The resolution will provide humanitarian assistance and support "Egypt's priority in ensuring that we implement a mechanism that will support humanitarian aid," he added.

Meanwhile, the risk of hunger in Gaza increases every day as war continues or worsens, according to a report released Thursday by the UN-backed food security agency.

In its report on the area of the disaster-hit enclave, the Classification of the Integrated Food Security Phase (IPC) said, although acute malnutrition and trauma-related deaths have not crossed the hunger threshold, "this is usually the result of a prolonged and extreme food consumption gap."

"Increasing wars, decreasing access to food, basic services, and life-saving assistance, as well as extreme concentrations or isolation of people in inadequate shelters or areas without basic services are the main factors that contribute to this increased risk," IPC reports.

Separately, the number of people killed in Gaza since October 7 has risen to 20,057, according to a statement from the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health on Friday.

A total of 53,320 people were also injured in the conflict, the ministry said. CNN was unable to independently verify these figures.

The ministry added that 390 people died in the past 48 hours while communication networks were cut off in most parts of the region.