Canada is happy that the United Nations wants the fighting to stop between Israel and Hamas during Ramadan. This was said by Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly on Monday.
Canada has been urging for a lasting peace agreement since December, she said at a media event in Ottawa.
“We have said that the fighting needs to stop and the ceasefire should be connected to releasing hostages, Hamas giving up its weapons, and making sure that help can reach Gaza,” Joly said.
“We want everyone to understand our decision and what we expect from them. ”
The decision made on Monday says that hostages should be released, but it doesn’t have to happen before the ceasefire during Ramadan, which ends on April 9.
This means the pause would only be for two weeks. The proposal says that a pause in the fighting should bring about a long-lasting peace.
The United States chose not to vote on the resolution, which made the Israeli prime minister very upset.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided not to go to Washington with a group of important people. He said the US is not standing by its principles.
The Israeli group was supposed to tell White House officials about their ideas for sending troops into Rafah, a city in southern Gaza near Egypt. Over a million Palestinian people are living there to stay safe from the war.
The decision was made 14-0 after the US chose not to stop it.
John Kirby, a spokesman for national security at the White House, said the US has always supported a ceasefire as part of a hostage deal. Kirby said we didn’t vote because the resolution didn’t criticize Hamas.
Hamas said it was happy that the Security Council voted, but they want the ceasefire to last forever.
Over 32,000 people in Gaza have died in the fighting, says the Gaza Health Ministry. The agency counts all people who were killed, not just soldiers. It found that most of the people who were killed were women and children.
Gaza is also dealing with a serious humanitarian crisis. A report from a global organization about hunger said on March 18 that a very serious food shortage could happen soon in northern Gaza. The report also said that if the fighting gets worse, half of the 2. 3 million people in Gaza could be in danger of not having enough food to eat.
Joly has told Israel and other countries that she is worried about a possible military attack in Rafah.
“Gaza is a really terrible place to live right now,” Joly said.
“A military operation would be really bad because these people have no other place to go. “
Date:
Canada applauds UN Security Council’s decision to end Gaza conflict
