UNRWA warns UNSC resolution will do little for war-torn Gaza Strip without truce

The UN Palestinian refugee agency warned Sunday that a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate increase in humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip may do little without a truce.

"It is welcome, but only time will tell what real difference this resolution is going to make, and it needs to increase the humanitarian assistance into Gaza," Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), told The New York Times.

"Without a truce, the UN resolution may do little for Gaza," she added.

On Friday, the UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for "urgent steps" to immediately allow "safe, unhindered, and expanded" humanitarian access to Gaza amid the ongoing Israeli offensive on the territory.

The resolution demands the parties to the conflict allow and facilitate the use of all available routes to and throughout the entire Gaza Strip, including border crossings, to ensure humanitarian personnel and assistance reach the civilian population in need.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, killing at least 20,424 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 54,036 others, according to health authorities in the enclave.

Around 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins with half of the coastal territory's housing stock damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million people displaced within the densely-populated enclave amid shortages of food and clean water.