UNITED NATIONS (AP) – The United States on Tuesday backed a widely supported United Nations resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in the Israeli-Hamas war in the hotly contested Gaza Strip, saying it would hinder negotiations on a deal. exercised the right of veto. Freed hostages abducted in Israel.
The vote in the 15-nation Security Council, with Britain abstaining, was 13-1, ending more than four months of war that began when Hamas militants invaded southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people. This reflects the strong support of countries around the world for this. They took people and 250 people hostage. Since then, Israeli military attacks have killed more than 29,000 Palestinians, the majority of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
This was the United States' third veto of a Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, and came a day after the United States circulated the draft resolution. rival's decision It supported a temporary ceasefire in Gaza related to the release of all hostages and called for the lifting of all restrictions on the provision of humanitarian aid.
Virtually all members of the council, including the United States, expressed serious concern about the impending catastrophe in Rafah, the southern Gaza city where some 1.5 million Palestinians have fled, if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presses ahead with his plan. expressed. evacuate civilians It withdrew from the city and shifted Israeli military attacks to areas bordering Egypt, where Israel says Hamas fighters are hiding.
“This resolution represents truth and humanity in confronting the champions of murder and hatred,” Algerian Ambassador to the United Nations Amal Bendjama, the council's Arab representative, said before the vote.
“Voting yes to this resolution supports the Palestinian people's right to exist,” he said. “On the contrary, voting against them means supporting brutal violence and collective punishment inflicted against them.”
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the U.S. understood the council's desire for urgent action, but that the resolution would have a “negative impact” on delicate negotiations over the hostage deal and would likely lead to at least six weeks of fighting. He countered that he believed it would stop. That way, she says, “we can build a more lasting peace over time.”
Thomas-Greenfield said the proposed U.S. resolution “does what is not written in this article and puts pressure on Hamas to carry out the ongoing hostage trade, which it desperately needs.” “This will help ensure a moratorium that will allow us to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians in need.”
She later told reporters that the Arab draft did not link the release of hostages to a ceasefire, which would force Hamas to cease fighting without demanding any action. That would mean “the fighting would have continued because we know it would continue if the hostages were not released,” she said.
Israel's U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan said the term ceasefire is being used by the Security Council, General Assembly and U.N. officials “as if it were a silver bullet, a magical solution to all the region's problems.” said.
He called this an “absurd idea” and said a ceasefire in Gaza would allow Hamas to rearm and regroup, adding that “the next genocidal attempt against Israelis is only a matter of when. “It will be,” he warned. He pointed to a Hamas statement vowing to repeat the October 7 atrocities “over and over again until Israel is destroyed.”
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, countered: “The message given to Israel today by this veto is that Israel can continue to get away with murder.”
He said more babies would be killed and orphaned, more children would die from hunger, cold and disease, more families would be threatened with further displacement, and Gaza's entire population of 2.3 million people would be left without food or food. They warned they would be stranded without water, medicine and shelter.
And in a sharply critical message to the United States, Israel's closest ally, Mansour said: fire. “
What happens next remains to be seen.
The 22-nation Arab group could submit the resolution to the United Nations General Assembly, which includes all 193 member states, and it is virtually certain it will be approved there. However, unlike Security Council resolutions, parliamentary resolutions are not legally binding. Mr Mansour indicated this was an option under consideration.
Thomas-Greenfield told the board that the United States would “engage in serious negotiations” on the resolution, leaving time for all members to comment “rather than imposing an arbitrary deadline for voting.” Ta.
The United States must also defend its veto of the resolution at the General Assembly within 10 days.
The rejected Arab-backed resolution called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to be respected by all parties, which would mean an end to the war.
In contrast, the U.S. draft resolution emphasizes the Security Council's support for a temporary ceasefire “as soon as practicable, on the basis that all hostages are released,” and that it supports “the provision of humanitarian assistance.” We are calling for the removal of all barriers to scale. “
This is the first time the US has used the term “ceasefire'' instead of cessation of hostilities.
The Arab draft also calls for the immediate release of all hostages, rejects the forced evacuation of Palestinian civilians, unhindered humanitarian access Taking action across Gaza, the Council reiterated its call for Israel and Hamas to “strictly comply” with international law, especially the protection of civilians.
Without naming either political party, it would condemn “all acts of terrorism” and reiterate the Security Council's “unwavering commitment” to a two-state solution in which the two democratic states of Israel and Palestine live side by side in peace. It would have been.
In a move sure to anger Israel and intensify differences and tensions between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the US draft resolution is a step that Israeli leaders oppose. It reiterates the same unwavering commitment to national solutions.
Biden has repeatedly called on Israel to protect Palestinian civilians, and the draft resolution states that Israel's planned large-scale ground offensive in Rafah “should not proceed in its current state.”
It warns that further displacement of civilians, “including an influx into neighboring countries,” referring to Egypt, would have serious implications for peace and security in the region.
In another criticism directed at Israel, the US draft “condemns calls by government ministers to resettle Gaza and rejects attempts to make demographic or territorial changes to Gaza that violate international law.”
Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzia, who has been calling for a ceasefire since mid-October, accused the United States of “duplicitous and hypocritical calls” for the Security Council to wait until diplomatic results on the hostage deal were reached.
“Washington's real goal is not to achieve peace in the Middle East or protect civilians, but rather to advance a geopolitical agenda that demands the protection of its closest allies in the Middle East at all costs. Nebenzia told the council that the United States had given Israel “valid permission to kill Palestinians.”
This is the third time the United States has vetoed a Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, although the Council has adopted two resolutions regarding Gaza that the United States abstained from.
That first solutionon November 15 called for an “urgent and long-term humanitarian pause” in the Gaza Strip to deal with the escalating crisis for Palestinian civilians due to Israeli airstrikes and ground attacks. In late November, a seven-day shutdown resulted in the release of 120 hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Israel's release of 200 Palestinian prisoners.
On December 22nd, the Council adopted the following policy: diluted resolution It called for an immediate rush to provide aid to starving and desperate civilians in the Gaza Strip, but there was no initial appeal for an “urgent cessation of hostilities” between the two countries. Israel and Hamas.
Indeed, it called for “creating the conditions for a sustained cessation of hostilities.” Diplomatic sources said this was the first time the Security Council had mentioned a cessation of fighting, although the steps were not clear. Little aid is coming into Gaza as fighting continues and there are no new suspensions of humanitarian aid.
