Death of hostage confirmedasus and Britain reject callsforceasefire
The US and Britain have been criticised after failing to back a United Nations resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the death of a hostage held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip has been confirmed following reports of a failed Israeli rescue mission.
Thirteen of the UN Security Council’s 15 members voted for the resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. The US was the only country to block it, supporting the Israeli view that a ceasefire would only benefit Hamas.
The resolution, put forward by the United Arab Emirates, was co-sponsored by 100 other countries. But Britain abstained from voting, which was condemned by charities and politicians yesterday.
First Minister Humza Yousaf said he agreed with Save The Children, which had accused the UK government of being “complicit in the horror that children will endure in the coming hours, days and weeks”.
Yousaf wrote on social media website X yesterday: “I find it incomprehensible that the UK did not vote for a ceasefire. How can you choose to be complicit in the killing of thousands of children?”
Palestinian officials described the US veto as “disastrous” and “a disgrace”.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for the Security Council to be reformed.
As fighting resumed after a brief truce more than a week ago, the US urged Israel to do more to protect civilians and allow more aid to besieged Gaza.
But deputy US ambassador to the UN Robert Wood told the Security Council that the resolution was “divorced from reality” and “would not move the needle forward on the ground in any concrete way”.
Israel Defence Forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner wrote on X, formerly Twitter, yesterday that a ceasefire would give Hamas “time to regroup, time to rearm and time to strategise”.
The death of a hostage held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip has been confirmed following reports of a failed Israeli rescue mission. Sahar Baruch, a 25-year-old student, was among the hostages kidnapped on October 7, the day over 1,200 people were killed by Hamas and more than 240 people were taken hostage.
“We will demand the return of his body as part of any hostages release deal. We won’t stop until everyone is home,” his kibbutz and families of hostages said in a statement.
The cause of his death was not mentioned in the statement, but it follows the release of a video which Hamas claimed showed the aftermath of a failed Israeli rescue operation.
Israel said two of its soldiers were seriously injured in a rescue attempt, and that no hostage had been found but that a number of Hamas gunmen had been killed.
Gaza residents yesterday reported air strikes and shelling in the northern part of the strip as well as in the south, including the city of Rafah, which lies near the Egyptian border and where the Israeli army had ordered civilians to evacuate to.
The death toll in Gaza since the start of the war has reached 17,487, the majority of them women and children, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry.
Israel holds Hamas responsible for civilian casualties, accusing Hamas of using them as human shields, and says it has made considerable efforts with its evacuation orders to get civilians out of harm’s way.