UN Security Council postpones vote on protecting Palestinians

The U.N. Security Council has postponed a vote on a draft resolution calling for the protection of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank after the United States sought changes, diplomats said Thursday.

"We received very late amendments from a member-state, but we have to consider them," said Kuwait's Ambassador Mansour al-Otaibi, who presented the draft resolution. He specified that the amendments were from the United States.

The Kuwait-sponsored draft also "deplores" and demands a halt to "the use of any excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate force" by the Israeli military. It also "deplores the firing of rockets from the Gaza Strip at Israeli civilian areas."

The United States strongly indicated during negotiations on the resolution that it would veto the measure.

Later in the day, US also reiterated that it would veto the resolution and called it "grossly one-sided approach that is morally bankrupt."

Israel's U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon, also sharply criticized it for not mentioning Hamas.