By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The brother of an Israeli man held hostage in the Gaza Strip by Palestinian militants Hamas criticized the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday for inaction and urged it to “send a resonating message that terror will never prevail.”
Michael Levy’s brother Or was taken hostage and Or’s wife was killed when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Levy was the first person from a hostage family to brief the 15-member Security Council, which has met dozens of times on the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza over the past 14 months.
“Your silence is deafening, your inaction is suffocating. For everyday this council fails to act, the message to the world is clear – that some lives are worth saving and others are not,” he said. “I refuse to accept a world where my brother’s life can be used as a bargaining chip and be forgotten.”
The Security Council has repeatedly demanded – in four resolutions – the immediate and unconditional release of hostages held by Hamas and other groups. But it has not condemned the militant group’s attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
Israel’s ally the United States vetoed a draft council resolution in October 2023 that would have condemned Hamas and urged Gaza aid access. The U.S. had argued it needed more time to broker humanitarian access and was disappointed the text did not mention Israel’s right to self-defense.
Levy’s remarks came as the United States, Egypt and Qatar sought on Wednesday to conclude a deal between Israel and Hamas to halt the war in Gaza. On Tuesday, sources close to the talks in Cairo said an agreement could be signed in coming days.
“We hope we can achieve a deal,” Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon told reporters ahead of the Security Council meeting on Wednesday. “After many rejections by Hamas, we hope we will have some news before the holiday of Hanukkah and Christmas.”
“I want to say those mediators who are doing a lot trying to make it happen, but there is no guarantees,” he said.
The war in Gaza began after Hamas killed around 1,200 people in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and took about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel says about 100 hostages are still held, but it is not clear how many of those people are alive.
Since then, Israel’s military has leveled swaths of Gaza, driving nearly all of its 2.3 million people from their homes, giving rise to deadly hunger and disease and killing more than 45,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, who do not distinguish between combatants and noncombatants.
“Gaza has turned into a graveyard for the living,” Algeria’s U.N. Ambassador Amar Bendjama told the council on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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