UN Security Council due to vote on delayed Gaza resolution

The United Nations Security Council was due to vote Wednesday on a much-delayed resolution calling for a pause to the Israel-Hamas war after members wrangled over wording while aid efforts in the Gaza Strip neared collapse.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza was rapidly deteriorating, with a senior U.N. official saying Israel's steps to allow in aid were "far short" of mounting need.

Members of the council had grappled for days to find common ground on the resolution, a vote on which was pushed back several times throughout Tuesday, after being postponed Monday.

An official scheduling document said the 15-member body would finally vote on Wednesday.

Israel, backed by its ally Washington, a veto-wielding permanent Security Council member, has opposed the use of the term "ceasefire."

Richard Gowan, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, said that "everyone is basically stuck waiting to see what the U.S. will decide to do."

"It looks like even U.S. diplomats do not know how this saga will end," he added, after several United States diplomats gave non-committal answers when asked what would happen and why the vote had been delayed through Tuesday.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said he did not want to "get ahead of a resolution that hasn't been voted on yet."

This week's back and forth comes after an impasse earlier this month, when the United States, despite unprecedented pressure from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, blocked the adoption of a Security Council resolution on the war.

It had called for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire" in the Gaza Strip, where Israel continues its deadly strikes in retaliation for Hamas's unprecedented Oct. 7 attack.

Last week,...