Russia and China ‘cynically’ veto US call for Gaza ceasefire

RUSSIA and China were branded ‘deeply cynical’ after vetoing a UN resolution for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza yesterday.

The resolution put before the organisation’s 15-member Security Council by the US tied a ceasefire to the release of hostages taken during the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, said ‘two deeply cynical reasons’ lay behind Russia and China’s votes against, whether they would admit it or not.

She said: ‘Russia and China refuse to condemn Hamas for burning people alive, for gunning down innocent civilians at a concert, for raping women and girls, for taking hundreds of people hostage.

‘This was the deadliest single attack on Jews since the Holocaust and a permanent member of the council can’t condemn it. It’s outrageous.’

She added that ‘Russia and China simply did not want to vote for a resolution that was penned by the US’.

It came as US secretary of state Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv for talks with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

After the 40-minute meeting, Mr Netanyahu said he had told Mr Blinken there was no way to defeat Hamas without going into Rafah, the Palestinian city in the southern Gaza Strip.

He added: ‘I hope we will do it with the support of the US, but if we have to, we will do it alone.’

Mr Blinken also said that the US shares the goal of defeating Hamas, but warned that a major military ground offensive in Rafah was not the way to do it as it risked killing more civilians and ‘further isolating Israel around the world’.

Eleven members of the UN Security Council voted in favour of yesterday’s ceasefire resolution, and three – including Algeria – against. There was one abstention, Guyana. The proposed ceasefire, lasting roughly six weeks, would have allowed for the delivery of humanitarian aid.