UN Secretary General António Guterres is giving some remarks now, saying in recently there's been "no significant change" in how the war in Gaza is being waged.

He says there is "no effective protection of civilians" and intensive Israeli bombings and ground operations continues, while Hamas and other Palestinian factions continue to fire rockets at Israel.

Guterres goes on to lay out the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, including the collapse of the medical system, widespread food crisis and the breakdown of public order.

The representative from China is now speaking.

He starts off by saying, "for reasons known to all, this draft resolution has made quite a number of adjustments".

He says the adjustments do not meet China’s expectations, but they voted yes because of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

He says the resolution does provide a “glimmer of hope”, but it comes down to if the resolution can be implemented on the ground.

He goes on to say only a ceasefire can prevent things from spiralling further out of control.

Language of diplomacy falls short of what's neededpublished at 17:34 Greenwich Mean Time 22 December 2023

17:34 GMT 22 December 2023

Shaimaa Khalil
Reporting from Jerusalem

For the families in Gaza in desperate need of aid - those carefully formulated words of the UN’s resolution now have to translate into reality on the ground. That is the fix that the UN finds itself in with this watered down resolution.

The UN resolution may have finally passed but Hamas and Israel have not agreed to any of it. In fact Hamas has doubled down on its position saying that there will be no deal to free the hostages until there’s a full ceasefire - a notion that is out of the question for Israel.

Hamas has also continued to fire rockets with sirens sounding in Tel Aviv. Israel seems to be expanding its ground offensive in central Gaza after it issued an evacuation order to residents of Al-Bureij telling them to move further south. Nearly 400 people died in Gaza in last 48 hours - according the Hamas-run health ministry.

The bombardment continues in Gaza’s north and south and has now reached Rafah. The director of the Kerem Shalom crossing was killed in a strike in the area on Thursday and the current picture makes any plans for the Kerem Shalom crossing to open and operate at full capacity that much riskier, especially given the vague language of the resolution with no outright mention of a pause or a truce.

Humanitarian agencies are now asking for “any available route” for aid - not only does it speak of desperation to get aid in safely, but also that as it stands no particular route is safe.

The need is not just for more aid to enter but for it to be distributed consistently and in an orderly way. This whole week has been about the language of diplomacy and how, as it stands, it stills falls short from what is needed on the ground.

Brazilian UN ambassador Sérgio França Danese has "welcomed" the new resolution, which he said comes at a time in which "this terrible crisis tests our humanity".

Additionally, Danese said that "the time for a humanitarian response" to the war "is now, not tomorrow, and not when this conflict finally ends".

"This is not just a moral or ethical choice," he said. "It's an obligation".

He also called for aid to be "substantially increased" and for civilian sites to be protected going forward.

Members of the UN Security Council have passed on a resolution on Gaza, after days of negotiations to avoid a US veto.

Russia presented a last-minute amendment just before the vote, but it did not pass.

Our correspondent at the UN in New York says some Arab nations believe the resolution has conceded too much to the US and Israel.

Here's the moment the members voted.

The UK’s representative is now speaking, saying it’s heart wrenching to see aid pile up outside Gaza but not getting to people who need it.

“It is heart-breaking to see children in the rubble of their destroyed homes, not knowing where to find food or water, not knowing where their parents are,” she says.

“We were the first country to call on Israel to open more crossings,” she says, adding that every effort must be made to get aid in faster.

She also says the actions of the Security Council must ensure the horror the Hamas attack on 7 October never happens again.

Image source, UNTV

So, as we've just been reporting, the UN Security Council has voted in favour of its aid resolution for Gaza.

What is this resolution about?

The aim has been to agree a text setting out when and how to bring more aid into Gaza, and when and how to create the conditions for ending or at least pausing the fighting. Disagreement between the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has focused on Israel’s role in deciding what aid can get in, and whether to call for a ceasefire or cessation or suspension of hostilities.

What is a UNSC resolution?

It is the formal expression of the will of the 15 members of the Security Council, the primary decision-making body at the UN. There are five permanent members (the US, Russia, China, France and the UK) which have a veto. The other ten members are elected for two-year terms.

What can the vote (and its result) actually do?

Votes by the UNSC are legally binding. Under the UN Charter, all member states are obligated to carry out the decisions of the council. But Hamas is a non-state actor and is not a member of the UN. And Israel often ignores the organisation which it considers to be institutionally hostile.

The US ambassador to the UN says "Hamas has no interest in lasting peace" in Gaza.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield says the organisation is "determined to repeat the horrors" of 7 October "over and over".

She adds that the US supports Israel's rights to "protect its people from acts of terror".

Thomas-Greenfield notes the resolution "does not support any steps that would leave Hamas in power", which she says would "undermine the prospect of a two-state solution, where Gaza and the West Bank would be reunited" under a "revamped and revitalised Palestinian Authority".

"We must work towards a future where Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side in peace, this is the only way forward," she adds.

Thomas-Greenfield notes the US is "disappointed and appalled" that the resolution and some security council members failed to condemn the "horrific terrorist attack" carried out by Hamas.

Image source, Getty Images

We’re now hearing from the member from United States, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

She says the council has created the conditions for humanitarian aid.

Thomas-Greenfield says Israel and Hamas must respect international humanitarian law.

She also says hostages must be released immediately and unconditionally.

"This resolution speaks to the severity of this crisis."

The United Nations Security Council has passed a resolution aiming to bring more aid into Gaza, but which stops short of calling for an immediate truce.

The US and Russia - two permanent members of the Security Council - both abstained. All 13 other members voted in favour.

Russia presents a draft amendment to the council before the vote for the draft resolution, but it does not pass.

Russia's UN ambassador has condemned what he termed "shameful, cynical and irresponsible" conduct by the US for previously vetoing the Security Council's draft resolutions.

Ambassador Vasily Alekseyevich Nebenzya accused the US of "avoiding responsibility" and purposely "dragging out the negotiating process" to "avoid responsibility".

The latest draft, Nebenzya said, was "initially toothless" and allows Israel to continue operating as it sees fit in Gaza.

The representative of the UAE, who proposed this resolution, says she and other officials say they visited Rafah and saw the "hell unleashed on Gaza following the Hamas attacks on Israel".

The UAE's ambassador to the UN, Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, explains the situation at the border between Gaza and Egypt is "unbearable", with thousands of aid trucks "trying and failing to enter a choke point" designed for pedestrian traffic.

The diplomat adds the UN has reported that the proportion of people hungry in Gaza is greater than any other country in 20 years.

"Unless we take drastic action there will be famine in Gaza," she says, going on to warn about the risk of "regional spillover" into the broader Middle East.

Nusseibeh goes on to say there "must be an international response" to the crisis, after praising Egypt for its work so far.

She says the draft resolution has been written with "extensive consultations between various parties" and adds that it "responds with action to dire situation on the ground" for people in Gaza and "demands the release of the hostages" held there by Hamas.

All available routes for aid to get into Gaza must be used to allow "life-saving aid to enter" and work must be carried out to create the conditions for a pause in fighting, Nusseibeh adds.

Nada Tawfik
UN correspondent

The long awaited meeting to vote is now underway. So far only the UAE and Russia have requested to speak before the vote.

Members of the UN Security Council are preparing to vote on a draft resolution focused on getting humanitarian aid into Gaza, which stops short of calling for a ceasefire.

It has taken days of negotiating to get to this moment, with diplomats trying to agree on the language used in the draft in order to avoid a US veto. The US vetoed the last vote on 8 December.

UN members will now be called one by one.

Stay with us as we bring you the latest updates.

The United Nation Security Council vote on its widely-anticipated resolution on humanitarian aid for Gaza is coming up soon.

It comes after days of negotiations to avoid a US veto. The draft does not call for a ceasefire and leaves Israel in control of monitoring aid deliveries. The UAE - which sponsored the resolution - says it can make a real difference for Palestinian civilians.

We'll bring you the result of the vote right here, so stay tuned.

Nada Tawfik
UN correspondent

The UN resolution’s focus is on the urgency to get desperately needed humanitarian aid to Palestinians throughout the entire Gaza Strip.

The UN has been clear that they need a ceasefire to be able to deliver aid at scale in any meaningful way, that nowhere is safe in Gaza due to Israel’s relentless bombardment campaign.

This resolution falls short of that. The original draft called for a sustainable cessation of hostilities, but the final version has been watered down and now calls for creating conditions for one.

The resolution seeks to elevate the UN’s presence in the region. It creates a coordinator to oversee a UN mechanism that will be set up, with the goal of speeding up and streamlining the distribution of aid.

It requests the coordinator be appointed “expeditiously” but it’s unclear how long a vetting process could take.

Image source, Anadolu Agency

As the UN vote is expected soon, the pressure on Israel over humanitarian aid reaching Gaza is growing.

International aid organisations have been warning about the dire humanitarian situation in the Strip for weeks.

A quarter of households - roughly 500,000 people - are facing "catastrophic conditions", a UN food security agency found on Thursday.

It says the territory's entire population of roughly 2.2 million people is suffering acute food shortages.

"No-one in Gaza is safe from starvation," said Cindy McCain from the UN's World Food Programme (WFP), warning that Gaza is at risk of famine if the war continues.

Limited numbers of trucks have been bringing aid into Gaza from Egypt for weeks, but the WFP recently estimated that just 10% of the food needed is currently getting into the territory.

Currently, Israel monitors all aid and fuel deliveries to Gaza.

Nada Tawfik
UN correspondent

Diplomacy is all about give and take. But according to several Security Council diplomats, the Arab Group is divided on this text, with some feeling too much was given to the US to gain its support.

Jordan and Algeria believe it’s better not to have a resolution at all, than to have this current watered down one. They broadly feel the new wording is akin supporting Israel in its war in Gaza.

The UAE wants the draft resolution to be voted on immediately to help increase aid into Gaza, before they vacate their seat on the council at the end of this month.

The Palestinians, Egyptians and Saudis are pleased with it and are ready to move forward as well.

In a statement to the BBC, the UAE’s Ambassador to the UN, Lana Nusseibeh, said both the coordinator and mechanism have been agreed at very high levels in countries, including the US and Egypt, and will have the backing of the Security Council.

"This provides much needed political support for a more senior leader with a mandate to tackle the very aid blockages that are leading to starvation and death in Gaza," she said.

We've just been hearing from Lord Peter Ricketts, a former permanent secretary at the UK Foreign Office, who was discussing the imminent UN vote on a resolution for humanitarian aid getting into Gaza.

He describes the process to get even to the vote as a "marathon", referencing the lengthy negotiations between UN Security Council delegates.

Ricketts tells our colleagues on the BBC News channel that the final version of the resolution, which the US last night signalled it was ready to support, may be "weaker than many would like" but it "brings the international community together".

Setting out the resolution, he says its main aim is to try to "clear the blockages" preventing aid from getting into Gaza quickly.

On whether the resolution will be accepted, if it's voted for, Ricketts says he believes Israel's "instant reaction" will be a refusal to "bow down to public pressure". But, he goes on, "there are limits to which Israel can go if the US has deemed this necessary".