After days of intense negotiations and threats to veto unsatisfactory measures, the United States abstained from voting on Friday as the United Nations Security Council passed a major resolution to address Israel's ongoing war against Hamas in the densely occupied Gaza Strip.
Initially drafted by the United Arab Emirates, the resolution calls for "urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip for a sufficient number of days to enable full, rapid, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access." Earlier versions of the measure included language demanding an "urgent cessation" of violence, against the wishes of the United States and Israel, which have held out against a blanket cease-fire over the past 11 weeks of violence. The approved measure came only after the U.S. "countered with 'a more passive formulation,'” one American official explained to CNN, adding that "Israel is aware and can live with it." The U.S. had already used its permanent position on the Security Council to veto earlier cease-fire resolutions, putting it "increasingly at odds with other major powers and with the Arab world," according to The New York Times.
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