NEW YORK, (PIC)
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Friday adopted a resolution to boost humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip that stopped short of a call for a ceasefire after a week of vote delays and intense negotiations to avoid a United States veto.
The resolution “calls for urgent steps to immediately allow safe, unhindered, and expanded humanitarian access and to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”
The US and Russia both abstained, while 13 other members voted in favor of the measure.
Russia proposed the draft be amended to revert to the initial text calling for “an urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities.” The amendment was vetoed by the United States. It received 10 votes in favor, while four members abstained.
Addressing the council after the resolution vote, Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the United States of “forcing into the text an essential license for Israel to kill Palestinian civilians in Gaza under the pretext of ‘creating conditions for a cessation of hostilities’.”
Earlier this month, the 193-member U.N. General Assembly demanded a humanitarian ceasefire, with 153 states voting in favor of the move that had been vetoed by the United States in the Security Council days earlier.
