From the Liveblog of
Friday, December 22, 2023
UN Security Council passes resolution calling to boost aid for Gaza, free all hostages
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The UN Security Council passes a resolution calling for speeding up procedures to enable the influx of increased aid into the Hamas-ruled enclave, and for the immediate release of hostages kidnapped during the October 7 atrocities in southern Israel.
The full text of the resolution is here.
The vote was 13 in favor and zero against. Both the United States and Russia abstained.
Before the vote, the US blocked a Russian amendment demanding “an urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities.” This went further than the resolution itself, which “calls for urgent steps to immediately allow safe, unhindered and expanded humanitarian access and to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”
This is the first time since the war that the council has passed a resolution including language regarding a “cessation of hostilities,” but it still stops short of demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire, which both the US and Israel oppose.
Earlier texts of the resolution, which was negotiated throughout the week, had demanded an immediate ceasefire and proposed a new UN mechanism for aid entering Gaza without Israeli inspection.
The exclusion of these demands from the final text was among the factors that led the US not to utilize its veto.
The Times of Israel Community.