The United States vetoed a United Nations resolution Friday backed by almost all other Security Council members and dozens of other nations demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. Ceasefire supporters called it a terrible day and warned of more civilian deaths and destruction as the war enters its third month. The vote in the 15-member council was 13-1, with the United Kingdom abstaining, per the AP. The United States' isolated stand reflects a growing fracture between Washington and some of its closest allies over Israel's monthslong bombardment of Gaza. France and Japan were among those supporting the call for a ceasefire.
In a vain effort to press the Biden administration to drop its opposition to calling for a halt to the fighting, the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey were all in Washington on Friday. But their meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken took place after the UN vote. Along with the vote, the Arab diplomats' mission served to shift responsibility more squarely onto the United States for protecting Israel from growing demands to stop the airstrikes that are killing thousands of Palestinian civilians. US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood, however, called the resolution "imbalanced" and criticized the council after the vote for its failure to condemn Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which the militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, or to acknowledge Israel's right to defend itself.
Wood declared that halting military action would allow Hamas to continue to rule Gaza and "only plant the seeds for the next war." "Hamas has no desire to see a durable peace, to see a two-state solution," Wood said before the vote. "For that reason, while the United States strongly supports a durable peace, in which both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and security, we do not support calls for an immediate ceasefire." Israel's military campaign has killed more than 17,400 people in Gaza—70% of them women and children—and wounded more than 46,000, according to the Palestinian territory's Hamas-run Health Ministry, which says many others are trapped under rubble. The ministry doesn't differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.
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The council called the emergency meeting to hear from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who for the first time invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter, which enables a UN chief to raise threats he sees to international peace and security. He warned of a "humanitarian catastrophe" in Gaza and urged the council to demand a ceasefire. Guterres said he raised Article 99—which hadn't been used at the UN since 1971—because "there is a high risk of the total collapse of the humanitarian support system in Gaza." The UN anticipates this would result in "a complete breakdown of public order and increased pressure for mass displacement into Egypt," he warned. Gaza is at "a breaking point," he said, and desperate people are at serious risk of starvation. Guterres said Hamas' brutality against Israelis on Oct. 7 "can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people." More here.
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