The UN Security Council's demand for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza has strengthened the Palestinian militant Hamas movement and prompted it to reject a US compromise proposal on a new hostage deal, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday.
Katz, speaking to Israeli Army Radio, said he was disappointed that the United States had not vetoed the resolution.
"We expect friends to strengthen us in these difficult times and not weaken us against Hamas and all the other enemies," Katz said. The US should veto "any decision that does not strongly condemn the terrible massacre and sexual crimes committed by Hamas against babies, women, girls and the elderly" on October 7, he added.
In a resolution binding under international law, the UN Security Council called for an "immediate ceasefire" in the Gaza Strip on Monday for the first time since the start of the war. In addition, the most powerful body of the United Nations is demanding the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas.
Prior to this, Israeli negotiators had accepted a compromise proposal from US mediators in the Qatari capital Doha and hoped Hamas would agree.
Following the UN Security Council's decision, however, Hamas announced that it was insisting on its demand for a comprehensive ceasefire, including a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
This proves that the resolution has played into the hands of Hamas, said Katz. The Islamist terrorist organization was counting on Israel being stopped by the international community without Hamas having to make any concessions, he said. The decision led to a hardening of the Hamas position on releasing hostages, he added.
"The vote yesterday was a mistake, morally and practically," said Katz. Hamas had "received the message that it doesn't have to hurry, there is another way."
However, Israel will continue its military operation in the Gaza Strip unperturbed, including the offensive in the city of Rafah in the south of the coastal strip, Katz asserted.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday called for the ceasefire to be implemented despite Israel's clear opposition.
For Germany, it was important "that a longer-lasting ceasefire really begins now, which is linked to the release of all Hamas hostages and, incidentally, the release of those killed. I think this is very important," Scholz said on Tuesday after a meeting with Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob in Brdo, Slovenia. Despite the "difficult situation" following the UN resolution, he hoped that this could now be achieved soon.
With world leaders still wrangling over ways to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire, people in Gaza continued to feel the devastating effects of a months-long siege.
Twelve Palestinians drowned in the Mediterranean Sea off Gaza after planes airdropped aid over the sealed-off coastal strip, according to Hamas.
The people had tried to reach the aid packages, which were dropped into the sea off a beach in northern Gaza, the media office of Gaza's Hamas-controlled administration said on Tuesday.
Dpa was not able to independently verify the incident which is said to have occurred on Monday afternoon.
Eyewitnesses said that some of the people didn't know how to swim, while others got caught in the ropes tying the packages together.
The humanitarian situation in northern Gaza is considered to be particularly dire more than five months into fighting between Israel and Hamas, triggered by the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7 in which some 1,200 people were killed.
Aid convoys reach the area infrequently because Israel keeps northern border crossings with Gaza shut.
More than 30,000 Palestinians are said to have been killed in the coastal area in Israeli bombings and military operations since October 7.
The US, Jordan and other countries have been airdropping aid on Gaza for about a month, but that is considered to be a costly and dangerous undertaking, with aid organizations saying airdrops cannot replace deliveries via land.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), said Israel is currently refusing entry authorization to all its convoys.
A representative of the Israeli military authority, which is coordinating the emergency aid, said last week in Geneva that there was no restriction on aid convoys. The problem is rather in the Gaza Strip, because the actors there are apparently not in a position to bring material to the people.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday in Geneva that it was Israel's duty as a party to the conflict to ensure that food for the civilian population could be distributed without restriction.
Meanwhile, Israel's army targeted the Bekaa Valley in north-east Lebanon on Tuesday, according to the military and Lebanon's state news agency NNA. There were initially no reports of injuries.
Israel's army said the attack on targets at a Hezbollah military site was in response to the Iran-backed militia shelling an Israeli army position on Tuesday morning. Israeli troops also attacked Hezbollah posts in the border area.
It comes after at least two people were killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit a house in southern Lebanon overnight, according to state media.
Clashes between Israel and Hezbollah usually focus on the border region. However, Israeli airstrikes have targeted the Bekaa Valley before. According to Israeli media reports, Tuesday's strike was the furthest north in recent months.
Hezbollah, which is classified as a terrorist organization by Germany and many other countries, primarily controls Lebanon's south on the border with Israel, Shiite-inhabited districts of Beirut and the Bekaa Valley.
