December 22, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

The International Rescue Committee welcomed calls for immediate humanitarian access throughout Gaza but criticized the newly-passed United Nations Security Council resolution for not including a call for a ceasefire.

The IRC said that "from a humanitarian point of view, the failure of the UNSC to demand an immediate and sustained ceasefire is unjustifiable."

The resolution calls for pauses in fighting between Israel and Hamas to allow more aid into Gaza. The vote had been delayed over the last several days as the council reworked the language of the text. 

The IRC said "immediate, safe and unhindered humanitarian access through all available routes to Palestinians throughout Gaza" and the upholding of humanitarian law, among other things, are "prerequisites for relief of the humanitarian suffering."

The organization reiterated its position that a ceasefire is the only way to "protect Palestinian lives, enable a sufficient humanitarian response, and offer the best chance of hostage release."

Israel is "grateful" to the United States for its efforts to "address the most problematic elements" in the United Nations Security Council resolution that was adopted Friday, an Israeli official told CNN.

"They really worked hard, and we really appreciate their efforts," the official added.

The resolution that was passed calls for the “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.”

The US abstained from voting, allowing it to pass. Russia also abstained.

Israel's Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said the organization was too focused on aid to Gaza, instead of giving their attention to the crisis of hostages captured by Hamas.

“The UN's focus only on the aid mechanisms for Gaza is unnecessary and disconnected from reality — Israel, in any case, allows the entry of aid on any necessary scale. The UN should have focused on the humanitarian crisis of the hostages held in Gaza,” Erdan said in a social media post following the adoption of the resolution.

The ambassador also called it “a disgrace” that “the Security Council as a body has not yet condemned the October 7 massacre" and blamed the UN policies for “allowing Hamas to dig terror tunnels and manufacture missiles and rockets.” 

“It is clear that the UN cannot be trusted to monitor the incoming aid to the Gaza Strip,” he claimed.

Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Eli Cohen also reiterated that Israel will "continue the war until the release of all the hostages and the eradication of Hamas in the Gaza Strip."

"Israel will continue operating according to international law and will inspect — due to security concerns — all the humanitarian aid entering Gaza. The UNSC resolution is right calling to ensure that the UN becomes more efficient in transferring humanitarian aid, and make sure it’s reaching its destination and not Hamas," the foreign affairs minister said.

More context: It comes as Israel’s relations with the UN have sunk to a historic low. Israel has long felt the UN is biased against it. Multiple Israeli officials have publicly called for the resignation of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has repeatedly condemned Hamas’ October 7 attack, including in the letter in which he invoked Article 99 to raise the Security Council’s attention to the situation in Gaza.

This post has been updated with comments from Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations.

Tamar Michaelis and CNN's Mariya Knight contributed reporting to this post.

The United Nations passed a resolution Friday calling for the “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.”

The United States, which has vetoed previous draft resolutions, abstained from voting. Russia abstained from the vote as well.

The vote passed 13-0. It comes after being delayed over the last several days as the council reworked the language of the text. 

Following the vote, US Amb. to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield called the council's decision a "strong humanitarian resolution," adding that the vote made it clear that "all parties must respect international humanitarian law."

The representative from the Russian Federation, Vasily Nebenzy, had put an amendment before the Security Council just prior to the vote that focused on “immediate cessation of hostilities,” saying that the new language was "neutered" by the United States and that with "each new drafting, the text lost more and more important provisions."

"By signing off on this, the council would essential be giving Israeli armed forces complete freedom of movement for further clearing of the Gaza Strip," he added when speaking about the need for an amendment.

That amendment was rejected.

The UN Security Council has convened to address the ongoing situation in Gaza.

Friday’s proposed 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. 

It comes after reports from the Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry, indicating that over 20,000 people have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military since October 7.

Simultaneously, a new report from the World Food Programme and other UN agencies reveals that more than one in four households in Gaza currently face extreme hunger. The report warns of an impending famine if the conflict persists.

Israel indicated Friday that it is widening its military operation in Gaza as the United States says it is ready to support a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for suspension of fighting and increase in aid to the besieged enclave.

The Israel Defense Forces on Friday ordered the residents of the Al-Bureij refugee camp in Deir al-Balah and several other areas in central Gaza to move to shelters for safety, signaling a new focus of the ground offensive.

The military operation had so far been largely focused on northern Gaza and parts of the southern side of the strip. 

Israeli military officials have said they believe they are close to defeating Hamas militants in Jabalya and Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood, Hamas’ last remaining strongholds in northern Gaza.

Shortly after the warning on Friday, an Israeli airstrike hit the Al-Bureij refugee camp, a hospital spokesperson said.  

At least three people were killed, and 10 others injured after the airstrike hit the camp, Dr. Khalil Al Daqran, a spokesperson at the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, told CNN.  

UN resolution: Meanwhile, the much-delayed vote on Gaza in the UN Security Council is expected Friday after US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said she was ready to support a resolution calling for an increase in aid to the strip.  

Language calling for “urgent steps” to lay the groundwork “for a sustainable cessation of hostilities” was instrumental in the United States’ decision to support the resolution, a source told CNN. Negotiations have dragged on throughout the week as diplomats worked behind closed doors on the language.

The language of the now reads “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.

It comes as the death toll in Gaza surpassed 20,000 since October 7, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah said Friday.

The risk of famine in the Palestinian enclave is increasing every day that hostilities persist, a UN-backed food security agency has warned, as the World Health Organization said no hospitals are functioning in northern Gaza and the strip's entire health care system is "on its knees." 

CNN’s Michael Rios, Priscilla Alvarez, Donald Judd and Alex Marquardt contributed previous reporting to this post.  

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.

73-year-old Gadi Haggai, an Israeli-American dual national and hostage who was kidnapped by Hamas from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, has died while being held captive in Gaza, the Missing Persons Families Forum said in a statement released Friday.

His body is still being held in Gaza, according to the Forum.

Haggai had been out on a walk on the morning of October 7 with his wife, Judi, when he was shot at and "critically Injured," the statement added.

His wife is still being held captive by Hamas.

"We share in the profound grief of the Haggai family," the statement added.

The director of the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, a key border crossing between Israel and Gaza that was recently reopened for the entry of aid into the Palestinian enclave, was killed in an Israeli strike on Thursday, a Gazan border official told CNN. 

Bassam Ghaben and three other employees were killed after being hit by an Israeli drone strike, the official said.  

The Israeli military said on Friday that it “struck armed terrorists near” the crossing and that the incident is under review.  

“The IDF attacked Hamas militants with weapons that came and approached to our border and to this crossing, period," Col. Moshe Tetro, a senior Israeli defense ministry official with responsibilities for Gaza, told CNN Friday. 

He declined to answer, when pressed by CNN, on whether the reported militants presented an imminent threat. "I think that I gave a very clear answer. We attacked militants with weapons," he said.  

Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, said on Thursday that delivery operations at the crossing were temporarily suspended after the reported strike and that the UN believes the aid deliveries have now resumed. A CNN team on the ground on the Israeli side of the crossing witnessed aid trucks heading into Israel from Egypt and getting checked at Kerem Shalom — and appeared to be heading into Gaza. 

Israel has struck at least three locations in Gaza to which it had ordered civilians to evacuate since the breakdown of a fragile truce between Israel and Hamas earlier this month, CNN analysis has found.

On December 1, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released a map of Gaza – divided into 623 numbered blocks – indicating areas the military would imminently strike, and areas to which civilians should flee. It was made accessible online via a QR code printed on leaflets dropped over the strip.

The map, a vestige of the short-lived plan from the 1970s to rebuild Gaza in the early years of Israel’s occupation of the coastal strip, was described by the IDF as “a safe way to preserve your security, your lives, and the lives of your families.”

Residents of Gaza are told to “please pay attention and check this map,” while following “instructions of the IDF through various media outlets.”

However, CNN analysis shows that IDF instructions have – at times – been imprecise and confusing. Regular IDF updates highlight numbered blocks in orange, urging citizens to evacuate these locations, and move to other areas labeled on the map. But some of the messaging has been contradictory and concerns have also been raised over Palestinians’ capacity to access the information due to power and telecommunication outages.

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