BRUSSELS, Belgium: The international Red Cross ended a 58-year deadlock within the global humanitarian movement by voting to admit Israeli and Palestinian relief agencies.

Membership was approved by 237 votes to 54.

Muslim countries raised legal and procedural concerns to challenge a December pact that had cleared the way for the entry for Israel's Magen David Adom and the Palestine Red Crescent.

Tunisia and Pakistan proposed changing the deal to identify occupied lands, including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, as under the jurisdiction of their respective Arab relief societies - an amendment Israel would not accept.

Magen David Adom has sought membership in the Red Cross movement since the 1930s - even before Israel became a state - but had been barred because it objects to using the traditional symbols of the movement to identify its medical and humanitarian workers.