By The South Asia Times 

CANBERRA - The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) has said a UN Security Council resolution passed overnight, which demanded much-needed humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza, but failed to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, reflected a failure of the UN system to protect human lives.

APAN President Nasser Mashni said the resolution, while promising an increase in aid, was more concerned with perpetuating the global political status quo than it was with preventing genocide.

“Overnight, the international community pandered to the US and Israeli governments to pass a resolution that determined that the Israeli Government’s killing of Palestinians - most of them children - would be allowed to continue,” Mr Mashni said.

“This is another sorry day for Palestinians and for our collective humanity.

“For it to have taken 77 long, brutal days for the UN to agree that civilians being intentionally starved and deprived of even the most basic medical supplies should have unfettered access to food, humanitarian aid and medical services is appallingly cold-hearted.

“And for the UN to have decided that 77 days of Israeli genocide in Gaza - the wiping out of entire families, of medical staff, journalists, the indiscriminate slaughter and maiming of children - remains palatable enough for it to refrain from calling for an immediate ceasefire, reflects the most unspeakable cruelty.

“More than this, it reflects the total failure and breakdown of an international system that should operate to protect the most vulnerable in our communities from oppression, violence and genocide, and to demand political solutions towards peace and justice.

"We must see an immediate and permanent ceasefire for Palestine - nothing less."

More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli Government in Gaza during the past 77 days, 40 per cent of whom are children, in what UNICEF has dubbed a “war on children.”

Meanwhile an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report released on Thursday stated that more than 90 percent of the population in Gaza - 2.08 million people - was “estimated to face high levels of acute food insecurity”, with 40 percent of the population (939,000) classified as in an “Emergency” phase, and 15 percent (378,000) in a “Catastrophe” phase of food insecurity.

The IPC also reported that Gaza faced a risk of famine, which “is increasing each day that the current situation of intense hostilities…persists or worsens.”