Israel-Gaza war: US blocks Security Council ceasefire resolution

Vocabulary: 209, Words: 375

Getty Images Members of the United Nations Security Council listen as Ambassador Majed Bamya, Deputy Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the UN, speaks meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question at the UN headquarters on November 20, 2024 in New York City.

1The US has blocked a Gaza ceasefire draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council - the fourth time it has used its veto power during the conflict to shield its ally, Israel.

2Fourteen of the 15 Council members voted in favour of the draft, which demanded that the war in Gaza "must end immediately, unconditionally and permanently and all remaining hostages must be immediately and unconditionally released".

3Deputy US ambassador to the UN, Robert Wood, said the document "abandoned" the necessity for there to be "a linkage between a ceasefire and the release of hostages".

4Wood said the proposed resolution would have sent a "dangerous message" to Hamas.

5The UNSC is composed of five permanent members which have veto power - and 10 which are elected.

6This group proposed the draft resolution which also "rejected any effort to starve Palestinians".

7The vote was held as the UN warned that Palestinians were "facing diminishing conditions for survival" in parts of northern Gaza under siege by Israeli forces because virtually no aid has been delivered in 40 days.

8Earlier this month, a UN-backed assessment said there was a strong likelihood that famine was imminent in areas of northern Gaza.

9The Israeli military has said its six-week-long offensive targets regrouping Hamas fighters, and that it is facilitating civilian evacuations and supply deliveries to hospitals.

10After the US veto, China's ambassador said people could not help but ask: "Do Palestinian lives mean nothing?"

11France said international humanitarian law was being trampled and the only response should have been an immediate and permanent ceasefire.

12The UK said it wanted to end the war, stop the suffering in Gaza and secure the immediate release of all hostages.

13But the harshest criticism of the US came from outside the Council doors.

14Human Rights Watch's (HRW) UN director, Louis Charbonneau, accused Washington of "once again" using its veto power "to ensure impunity for Israel as its forces continue to commit crimes against Palestinians in Gaza".

15Israel rejects the accusations.

16The current war broke out after Hamas gunmen burst through the border and attacked Israeli communities, killing about 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies, and taking 253 into Gaza as hostages.

17More than 43,920 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.

from BBC