U.N. Security Council Passes Resolution On Aid For Gaza After U.S. Resistance

Wielding the threat of a veto, American officials weakened proposals to limit fighting and reduce Israel's control of aid. Most Gazans now face high levels of acute food insecurity.

The United Nations Security Council on Friday passed a resolution aimed at increasing humanitarian aid for Gaza — overcoming intense resistance from the U.S. that ultimately forced diplomats from multiple countries to weaken the potential effect of the initiative.

The U.S. abstained from voting on the resolution while the majority of other council members voted for it.

The resolution, proposed by the United Arab Emirates on behalf of Arab and Muslim states, focuses on helping the more than 2 million people in the territory who have been growing increasingly desperate since Israel launched a massive, U.S.-backed offensive there to strike Gaza-based militants responsible for an attack in Israel on Oct. 7. On Thursday, the world’s top tracker of hunger, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, said more than 90% of people in Gaza now face high levels of acute food insecurity, calling that the highest share of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity the group has ever classified for any area since it was launched in 2004.

The U.S. ― which has the power to veto Security Council resolutions ― says it believes more aid must get into Gaza faster, but President Joe Biden has been reluctant to pressure Israel, which largely controls aid flows, to take tangible steps to make that happen. In negotiations over the just-passed resolution, American diplomats told foreign counterparts they did not want to veto it but strongly resisted language proposing limits to Israel’s military operation on humanitarian grounds and shifting oversight of aid to the U.N., a step the U.S. has supported in other war zones.

Diplomats this week told HuffPost they repeatedly assessed a U.S. veto as a near certainty. The council delayed the vote by multiple days at the U.S.’s request.