NEW YORK: The United Nations Security Council on Friday called on all countries to respect and protect aid workers and UN personnel, and strongly condemned all violence against them and "the unlawful denial of humanitarian access." The 15-member body adopted a Swiss-drafted resolution with 14 votes in favour, while Russia abstained.
The resolution, which did not identify any specific conflicts, was adopted after more than seven months of war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The United Nations says more than 250 humanitarian workers have been killed in the conflict.
Israel is under growing global pressure to allow more aid into the besieged enclave, where the UN says a famine looms. "This resolution is not about one context in particular, it's for all humanitarian workers, all over the world," Switzerland's UN Ambassador, Pascale Baeriswyl, told reporters.
Slovenia's Deputy UN Ambassador, Ondina Blokar, said that since 2003 at least 2,491 aid workers had been killed and more than 4,500 had been wounded or kidnapped around the world.
"These numbers continue growing with every month of ongoing armed conflict in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine and elsewhere. This is simply inexcusable and unjustifiable," Blokar told the council.
Most of the aid workers killed in Gaza worked for the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said investigations are needed into the deaths of all humanitarian workers in Gaza.
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