UN approves watered-down resolution on aid to Gaza without call for suspension of hostilities

After many delays, the U.N. Security Council adopted a watered-down resolution Friday calling for immediately speeding up aid deliveries to desperate civilians in Gaza but without the original call for an "urgent suspension of hostilities" between Israel and Hamas.

The vote in the 15-member council was 13-0 with the United States and Russia abstaining. The vote followed a U.S. veto of a Russian amendment that would have restored the call for a suspension of hostilities.

That vote was 10 members in favor, the U.S. against and four abstentions. The revised text was negotiated during a week and a half of high-level diplomacy by the United States, the United Arab Emirates on behalf of Arab nations and others. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said late Thursday the United States, Israel’s closest ally, backed it.

The U.S. abstention avoided a second U.S. veto of a Gaza resolution following Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attacks inside Israel.