UN Security Council postpones voting on a draft resolution on Gaza

A vote in the Security Council on a draft resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip has been postponed until Friday.

A diplomatic source told Sky News Arabia that a paragraph had been amended to take urgent steps to bring aid into the Gaza Strip without obstacles.

The source, who preferred to remain anonymous, added, "A paragraph in the draft resolution was amended to work to create conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities."

The source indicated that the paragraph on the entry of humanitarian aid was amended, stating that it requests the Secretary-General to accelerate its delivery to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.

According to the source, the amendments included "appointing a coordinator for humanitarian affairs and reconstruction, who will be responsible for managing, coordinating, monitoring, and verifying the entry of aid."

The source explained that the coordinator "will have the necessary personnel and equipment in Gaza under the authority of the United Nations General Assembly to perform the required tasks.

Reuters quoted the US envoy to the United Nations as saying that she could support the current draft of the Security Council resolution on aid to Gaza.

The vote, which was scheduled for Monday, was postponed several times, most recently Wednesday, at the request of the Americans, who used their veto on December 8 against a previous text calling for a "humanitarian ceasefire" in the Gaza Strip.

Israel declared war on Hamas in response to the unprecedented attack carried out by the movement on October 7 on its territory, which led to the killing of about 1,140 people, most of them civilians, according to a census conducted by Agence France-Presse based on the latest Israeli official figures.

During the attack, Hamas took about 250 people hostage, 129 of whom are still being held in the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli authorities.

For its part, the movement's government announced on Wednesday that Israeli operations left twenty thousand dead in Gaza, including at least eight thousand children and 6,200 women.