• Ahmed Aboul Gheit said resolution was a step in the right direction, but fell short of the aspired goal to achieve a full ceasefire
• Humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza needed a serious action beyond temporary, partial measures, said Aboul Gheit

CAIRO: Failure of the United Nations’ Security Council to agree on a permanent ceasefire in Gaza is equivalent to providing Israel with a ‘license to kill’, said the Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

He said the Security Council’s resolution, which was adopted on Friday to boost humanitarian aid to Gaza, was a step in the right direction, but it fell short of the aspired goal to achieve a full ceasefire in the besieged enclave.

The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza needed a serious and firm action beyond “tranquilizers to absorb the international public opinion’s wrath,” Aboul Gheit added.

The UN Security Council approved a toned-down resolution that called for urgent steps to “immediately allow safe, unhindered, and expanded humanitarian access and to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities” after a week of vote delays and intense negotiations to avoid a veto by the United States.

The rising death toll reached 20,000 Palestinians as the war entered its third month.