US, Russia Again Clash Over Gaza As UN Security Council Passes Resolution

Russia and the United States continue to clash in the UN Security Council (UNSC), which was on display again as Friday it passed a new resolution that urges speeding up humanitarian aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip. But both the US and Russia abstained from the vote for contrasting reasons.

The new 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."

However, the US is angry it didn't specifically condemn the Oct.7 Hamas attack, while Russia is unhappy that the final resolution watered down any real call for urging a ceasefire. 

Describing Moscow's stance, Jerusalem Post writes, "But a weakening of language on a cessation of hostilities frustrated several council members - including veto power Russia - and Arab and Organization of Islamic Cooperation states, some of which, diplomats said, view it as approval for Israel to further act against Hamas for a deadly Oct. 7 attack."

Wrangling over the fine print had carried on all week:

Diplomats had been working behind closed doors to finalize the resolution drafted by the United Arab Emirates. 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.

The US had vetoed prior proposed resolutions on the basis that they called for an immediate ceasefire, which Washington rejects in support of ongoing Israeli air and ground operations.

But increasingly, the US has found itself isolated alongside Israel as the death toll soars. The Hamas-Run Gaza Health Ministry has said the death toll now surpasses 20,000 killed - with the majority being women and children. Israel has said multiple thousands are actually Hamas militants.

Russia has been a big backer of UNSC language which demands a halt to fighting:

The representative from Russia put an amendment before the council just before the vote that would have changed the language back to the original “immediate cessation of hostilities” but it was vetoed by the US.

Hawks in the US have lately sought to make a connection between Putin and the Oct.7 terror attack. Most recently, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley bizarrely claimed at a campaign rally event, "Hamas invaded Israel on October 7th, October 7th is Putin's birthday." By this, she painted a picture of covert Russian support to Palestinian militants.

Haley claimed it was part of a plot to take the world's attention off of Russia's actions in Ukraine. However, there was nothing in the way of evidence offered for such a grand conspiracy theory based on pure speculation.