US vetoes UN resolution on cease-fire
Says it would risk deal to free Israeli hostages
UNITED NATIONS — The United States on Tuesday vetoed an Arab-backed and widely supported UN resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in the IsraelHamas war in the Gaza Strip, saying it would interfere with negotiations on a deal to free hostages abducted in Israel.
The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 13-1 with the United Kingdom abstaining, reflecting the strong support from countries around the globe for ending the war, which started when Hamas militants invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage. Since then, more than 29,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military offensive, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The calls for the cease-fire follow increasingly dire conditions in the Gaza Strip. UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that the World Food Program, a UN agency, was suspending crucial food deliveries in northern Gaza, where the population was at the brink of starvation, because its staff could not operate safely and that the council should find a unified voice on the war.
It was the third US veto of a Security Council resolution demanding a cease-fire in Gaza and came a day after the United States circulated a rival resolution that would support a temporary cease-fire linked to the release of all hostages.
Virtually every council member — including the United States — expressed concern at the impending catastrophe in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, where some 1.5 million Palestinians have sought refuge, if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu goes ahead with his plan to evacuate civilians and invade the area bordering Egypt, where Israel says Hamas fighters are hiding.
Before the vote, Algeria’s UN Ambassador Amar Bendjama, the Arab representative on the council, said: “A vote in favor of this draft resolution is a support to the Palestinians right to life. Conversely, voting against it implies an endorsement of the brutal violence and collective punishment inflicted against them.”
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield countered by saying the United States understands the desire for urgent action but believes the resolution would “negatively impact” sensitive negotiations on a hostage deal and a pause in fighting for at least six weeks. If that happens, “we can take the time to build a more enduring peace,” she said.
The proposed US resolution, she said, “would do what this text does not — pressure Hamas to take the hostage deal that is on the table and help secure a pause that allows humanitarian assistance to reach Palestinian civilians in desperate need.”
Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan said the phrase ceasefire is used in the Security Council, the General Assembly, and by UN officials “as if it is a silver bullet, a magical solution to all of the region’s problems.”
He called that “an absurd notion,” warning that a ceasefire in Gaza would enable Hamas to rearm and regroup and “their next attempted genocide against Israelis will only be a question of when, not if.”
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, shot back that the “message given today to Israel with this veto is that it can continue to get away with murder.”
What happens next remains to be seen.
The 22-nation Arab Group could take its resolution to the
UN General Assembly, which includes all 193 UN member nations, where it is virtually certain to be approved. But unlike Security Council resolutions, assembly resolutions are not legally binding.
The Arab-backed resolution would have demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to be respected by all parties, which implies an end to the war.
By contrast, the US draft resolution would support a temporary cease-fire “as soon as practicable, based on the formula of all hostages being released” and call for “lifting all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale.”
It is the first time the United States has used the word “cease-fire,” as opposed to cessation of hostilities.
In northern Gaza Strip, the announcement that the World Food Program would pause deliveries of food was greeted with dismay.
“The situation is beyond your imagination,” said Soad Abu Hussein, a widow and mother of five children sheltering in a school in Jabaliya refugee camp.
A study by the UN children’s agency warned that one in six children in the north is acutely malnourished.