With an assist from America, the United Nations Security Council approved a resolution Wednesday calling for humanitarian pauses in the Gaza war. Israel called it “meaningless.”

The resolution, sponsored by Malta, called for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip.” It asked that “all parties comply with their obligations under international law, notably with regard to the protection of civilians, especially children.”

Twelve countries on the 15-member council supported the resolution. America and Britain abstained because it failed to condemn Hamas for launching the war on October 7. Russia also abstained after the council declined to adopt its amendment calling for the pauses to lead to a full, agreed ceasefire. 

Even as the American ambassador at Turtle Bay, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, expressed her concern over the text, she declined to use America’s veto right. “I am horrified that a few members of this Council still cannot bring themselves to condemn the barbaric terrorist attack that Hamas carried out against Israel on October 7th,” she said. Yet, when America refrains from voting against a resolution, it is widely perceived to tacitly support it.

“The Council’s resolution is disconnected from reality and is meaningless,” the Israeli ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said in a statement after the vote. “Regardless of what the Council decides, Israel will continue acting according to international law while the Hamas terrorists will not even read the resolution at all, let alone abide by it.”

Prior to the vote the World Health Organization’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and the Palestinian Red Crescent’s director, Marwan Jilani, briefed the council on the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Both failed to mention Hamas’s use of hospitals as military headquarters, Mr. Erdan noted. 

While the reports are written on U.N. documents, Mr. Erdan added, what is in them is based on data supplied by Hamas. As no representative of Israel’s equivalent of the Red Cross, Magen David Adom, was invited, he said, the briefings seemed tilted against the Israelis.  “Does that not reek of bias?” he told the council. “Do Israeli lives matter less?”

Ms. Thomas-Greenfield nevertheless supported at least one passage of the resolution that called for the release of hostages Hamas is holding in Gaza. She also said that while it doesn’t condemn the terrorists, the resolution at least, for the first time, mentions Hamas by name.

Mostly, Ms. Thomas-Greenfield told the council, America has advocated for humanitarian pauses in the war for some time.

“While we have made some progress in ramping up the flow of humanitarian assistance to Gaza, much more aid is urgently needed,” she said. “We continue to work tirelessly to increase deliveries of aid. And we are hopeful that humanitarian pauses will help the UN and humanitarian partners deliver aid and enable the safe passage of civilians fleeing violence.”

It was the first time after four failed attempts since October 7 that the council passed a resolution on the war. The General Assembly has earlier passed a non-binding resolution calling for “humanitarian truce.” Only Israel, America, Canada, and several Pacific island nations opposed it. 

Mr. Erdan said that Israel is taking steps to avoid civilian casualties and deliver humanitarian assistance to Gaza since, he said, “unlike Hamas and UN bodies we cherish life and hold it sacred.”