Hamas and Palestinian Authority split over UN aid resolution

The Palestinian foreign ministry and the Islamist group Hamas issued opposing statements on Friday in response to the adoption by the United Nations Security Council of a resolution intended to help bring more humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian foreign ministry, which is part of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, called the resolution “a step in the right direction”, and said it would help “end the aggression, ensure the arrival of aid and protect the Palestinian people”.

“We consider it a step that may contribute to alleviating the suffering of our people in the Gaza Strip,” the foreign ministry statement said.

But Hamas, the militants who run Gaza, called the resolution an “insufficient step” for meeting the impoverished enclave’s needs.

“During the past five days, the US 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 Israel’s aggression against our defenseless Palestinian people,” the statement said.

Earlier on Friday, amid global outrage over a rising Gaza death toll in 11 weeks of war between Israel and Hamas and a worsening humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave, the US abstained to allow the 15-member UN Security Council to adopt a resolution drafted by the United Arab Emirates.