UN approves watered-down resolution on aid deliveries to Gaza

WARNING: This story contains distressing images.

The United Nations Security Council adopted a watered-down resolution Friday calling for immediate aid deliveries to hungry and desperate civilians in Gaza, but without the original call for an "urgent suspension of hostilities" between Israel and Hamas.

The long-delayed vote in the 15-member council was 13-0, with the United States and Russia abstaining. The vote came immediately after the U.S. vetoed a Russian amendment that would have restored the call to immediately suspend hostilities. That vote was 10 countries in favour, the U.S. against and four abstentions.

The final-vote U.S. abstention avoided a second American veto of a Gaza resolution following the surprise Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 inside Israel. A relieved U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council after the resolution's adoption: "This was tough, but we got there."

She said the vote bolsters efforts "to alleviate this humanitarian crisis to get life saving assistance into Gaza and to get hostages out of Gaza, to push for the protection of innocent civilians and humanitarian workers and to work towards a lasting peace."

But Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia called the resolution "entirely toothless" and accused the U.S. of "shameful, cynical and irresponsible conduct" and resorting to tactics "of gross pressure, blackmail and twisting arms" to avoid a U.S. veto.

In proposing the amendment to restore call for suspending hostilities, the Russian said adopting the revised resolution "would essentially be giving the Israeli armed forces complete freedom of movement for the clearing of the Gaza Strip."

Canada's ambassador to the UN, Bob Rae, said the resolution is "a good indication" that there's widespread consensus in the international community that Gaza's humanitarian crisis is untenable.

"We all hope it works, and we need to keep on really reminding everyone that they have obligations under the law to make sure that goods and other things can continue to flow into the conflict area," Rae told CBC News.

The final resolution, with some late changes Friday morning, culminated a week and a half of high-level diplomacy by the United States, the United Arab Emirates on behalf of Arab nations and others. Between Tuesday and Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to the foreign ministers of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates three times each, as well as to the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Britain, France and Germany.

The vote, initially scheduled for Monday, was delayed every day until Friday.

Rather than watered down, Thomas-Greenfield described the resolution as "strong" and said it "is fully supported by the Arab group that provides them what they feel is needed to get humanitarian assistance on the ground."

But the resolution was stripped of what was considered to be its most impactful provision: The call for "the urgent suspension of hostilities to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and for urgent steps towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities," which Russia sought to restore.

Instead, the resolution calls "for urgent steps to immediately allow safe, unhindered and expanded humanitarian access, and also for creating the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities." The steps are not defined, but diplomats said its adoption marks the council's first reference to stopping fighting.