Without a Truce, U.N. Resolution May Do Little for Gaza, Aid Groups Say

United Nations and other aid officials warned on Saturday that a new U.N. Security Council resolution calling for stepped-up aid delivery to the increasingly hungry and sick civilians of the Gaza Strip would fail to stop the spiraling humanitarian crisis because it did not demand a full halt to the fighting.

The resolution approved on Friday directs the secretary general of the United Nations to appoint a special coordinator for aid to Gaza and establish a mechanism to speed up delivery of desperately needed food, water, fuel and medicine, but it does not mandate a truce.

Even if enough aid were to cross the border, aid officials said, without a cease-fire, they would be unable to distribute it amid Israel’s frequent airstrikes and a ground invasion that has turned much of the territory into an active combat zone.

“Right now, we cannot deploy humanitarian aid. It’s impossible,” said Guillemette Thomas, the medical coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in Jerusalem. “People need to be able to get food and water without the fear of being bombed or killed or shot at any moment,” she added. “We need to be able to move within the strip to access people.”