Live updates | UN Security Council calls for Gaza aid, but stops short of demanding a cease-fire

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The U.N. Security Council has passed a new resolution that calls for speeding up aid deliveries into Gaza, but without the original call for an “urgent suspension of hostilities” between Israel and Hamas

The U.N. Security Council passed a new resolution that calls for speeding up humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza, but without the original insistence on an “urgent suspension of hostilities” between Israel and Hamas.

The United States and Russia abstained from Friday's vote, which was delayed for days as diplomats sought to avoid a veto by the U.S., Israel’s closest ally.

A staggering 20,000 people have been killed in Gaza, Palestinian officials said Friday — around 1% of the besieged territory's prewar population.

The U.N. says more than a half-million people are starving in Gaza because not enough food has entered the besieged territory as Israel keeps up its blistering campaign of airstrikes and ground operations for over 10 weeks.

The Health Ministry in Gaza does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. Israel says more than 130 of its soldiers have died in its ground offensive after Hamas raided southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and taking about 240 hostages.

Currently:

— UN approves watered-down resolution on aid to Gaza without call for suspension of hostilities.

— Palestinian Christians prepare for a somber Christmas amid war.

— The Israeli military campaign in Gaza now sits among the deadliest and most destructive in history, experts say.

— At least five US-funded projects in Gaza are damaged or destroyed, but most are spared.

— Israeli police investigate prison guards in death of a Palestinian prisoner.

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