UN Security Council resolution for more aid into Gaza softened as US says it will support it

Members of the United Nations Security Council hold sideline meetings as they take a break at the UN headquarters in New York on December 19. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

A United Nations Security Council resolution on suspending fighting between Israel and Hamas and allowing more aid into Gaza has been softened, according to a source familiar with the text, as the United States says it’s ready to support it. 

The UN is poised to vote Friday on the resolution, with a Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East scheduled for 11:30 a.m. ET.

Language calling for “urgent steps” to lay the ground “for a sustainable cessation of hostilities” was instrumental in the United States’ decision to support a resolution from the United Nations Security Council, increasing the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza while calling for a halt in hostilities.

The language of the text has been replaced with “urgent steps to immediately allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and also for creating the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities,” according to the source. 

A diplomatic source previously told CNN that key issues with the negotiations over the draft included language on the “cessation of hostilities” and a call for the UN to “establish a monitoring mechanism in the Gaza Strip with the necessary personnel and equipment, under the authority of the United Nations Secretary-General.”

Diplomats had been working behind closed doors to finalize a resolution drafted by the United Arab Emirates. A US official familiar with the discussions said the draft had started with calling for an “urgent cessation” of hostilities. Neither the United States nor Israel currently supports a ceasefire, so the US countered with “a more passive formulation,” the official said, describing the language that ended up in the resolution.

“Israel is aware and can live with it,” the official added, while arguing it was not the language on the cessation of hostilities that caused the delays but rather the disagreements over the monitoring mechanism.

US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced late Thursday that the US would support the measure after previously voting four times to delay a vote on the resolution.