Russia says the death of thousands of children in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of Israel’s war against Palestinians is not enough to get the West behind a resolution by the United Nations Security Council demanding a ceasefire in the besieged coastal territory.
Israel launched its full-scale war on the impoverished and densely-populated Gaza Strip on October 7. As of Wednesday, it has killed 6,546 Palestinians, including 2,704 children, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
As relentless airstrikes and missile attacks by the Tel Aviv regime claim more lives, including children, the West, including the United States, has remained almost silent over the appalling humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the killing of civilians around the clock there.
On Sunday, the US submitted a draft for a UN Security Council resolution on Israel’s onslaught in Gaza without any mention of a ceasefire in it. The US-drafted resolution condemned the Hamas resistance group’s Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, urged the release of war prisoners, and supported Israel’s so-called right to defend itself. However, it does not stipulate a call for a ceasefire.
In an interview with Sputnik Radio on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stressed that “This is the most obvious and rather simple thing to do in this situation: simply to produce a statement, a resolution, a document with a unified call for a ceasefire, settling the situation and so on.”
She said the West demonstrated that it failed to produce a UNSC resolution calling for a ceasefire and settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict despite reports that thousands of children have been slaughtered in the Gaza Strip.
“Even these numbers cannot compel certain political forces in the West to come to their senses and realize what is going on,” Zakharova added.
On October 17, the UN Security Council did not adopt the Russia-drafted resolution on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as only five countries voted in favor. The draft resolution called for an immediate ceasefire and also blamed the United States for the unfolding situation in the Middle East.
According to UNICEF, more than 400 children are being killed or wounded daily in incessant shelling attacks on the Gaza Strip, where shortages of food, water and medicine threaten the lives of Gazans and hospitals are overwhelmed amid incessant Israeli bombings.
Reporting that 2,360 children had been killed in less than three weeks, UNICEF on Tuesday called for an immediate ceasefire and unimpeded access to humanitarian assistance. It added that 5,364 children also sustained wounds in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war.
Almost every child in the Gaza Strip has been exposed to deeply distressing events and trauma, marked by widespread destruction, relentless attacks, displacement, and severe shortages of daily necessities such as food, water, and medicine, UNICEF said.
