The UN Security Council on Friday approved a resolution calling for a temporary truce in Gaza to allow increased aid into the Strip and the immediate release of hostages who were kidnapped during Hamas' October 7 in southern Israel.
The vote was 13 in favor and zero against. Both the United States and Russia abstained.
Before the vote, the US vetoed a Russian amendment which demanded an immediate end to the war.
The resolution was originally scheduled for a Monday vote, but the vote was repeatedly postponed as members of the Council were grappling to find common ground on the wording.
On Thursday night, the US indicated it could now support the proposal after securing changes it sought to its wording.
That resolution had called for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire" in the Gaza Strip, but Israel, backed by the United States has opposed the use of the term "ceasefire."
Instead of calling for a ceasefire, the draft resolution now has blunted language to have the Security Council call for "urgent steps to immediately allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and also for creating the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities."
Earlier this month, the Security Council attempted a vote on a resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, but the US vetoed the proposal.
In mid-October, a Russian-drafted UN Security Council resolution, that would have called for a humanitarian ceasefire in the war in Gaza, failed to pass after it did not achieve the minimum nine votes needed in the 15-member body.
The text was controversial because, while it referred to Israel and the Palestinian Arabs, it did not directly name Hamas, whose terrorists murdered at least 1,200 people in Israel on October 7.
In late October, Russia and China vetoed a US-drafted UN Security Council resolution on the war between Israel and Hamas.
The UN General Assembly, whose resolutions are non-binding as opposed to Security Council resolutions which are, last week approved a resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, as well as the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)