Israel at warBoth the US and Russia abstained

UN Security Council passes resolution calling to boost aid for Gaza, free all hostages

The vote was 13 in favor and zero against.

By The Times of Israel December 22, 2023, 12:48 pm 0 Edit

Flags of member nations at the United Nations Headquarters (Photo by I, Aotearoa, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The UN Security Council passed a resolution today calling for a temporary truce in Gaza to allow increased aid into the Hamas-ruled enclave and the immediate release of hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7 atrocities in southern Israel.

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 “creat[ing] the conditions” for a cessation of hostilities.

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.”

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. PJC