CAIRO: A group of UN Security Council ambassadors arrived in Egypt on Monday to inspect the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip. The visit is taking place amidst relentless Israeli bombardments plunging Gaza into a deepening humanitarian crisis. This visit comes just days after the United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.
Organized by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt, the one-day trip involves around a dozen ambassadors from countries including Russia and the United Kingdom. Notably absent are representatives from the United States, which vetoed the resolution on Friday, and France.
The informal visit seeks to address the urgent situation in the besieged Gaza Strip, which UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has described as a “graveyard.” During a briefing for the envoys, an Egyptian foreign ministry official emphasized the need to acknowledge the pain and suffering inflicted on the Palestinian people in Gaza.
UN Council Envoys to Review Situation in Gaza
Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE’s envoy to the Security Council, clarified that member states are participating in the trip in their “national and personal capacities.” She expressed the goal of helping the diplomats understand both the suffering and destruction experienced by the people of Gaza and their resilience.
The ambassadors are set to receive briefings from UN agencies, Egyptian authorities, and health officials regarding the crisis in Gaza. Their itinerary includes a visit to the Rafah crossing, the sole gateway into the narrow enclave, and a stop at a hospital in the Egyptian town of El-Arish, treating Palestinian patients near the Gaza border.
Since October 7, the Israeli military has launched a brutal offensive, reducing much of Gaza to rubble and killing at least 17,997 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry. The UN estimates that 1.9 million out of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced, with half of them being children. Basic services, particularly healthcare, have been severely impacted, with only 14 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals functioning, and dire shortages of food, fuel, water, and medicine persist.
