File Photo: The UN flag flies on a stormy day at the United Nations during the United Nations General Assembly. AP
All 14 other members of the United Nations’ most powerful body voted in favour of the resolution, which described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as “catastrophic” and called on Israel to lift all restrictions on the delivery of aid to the 2.1 million Palestinians in the territory.
The US veto on Thursday was the sixth time that Washington blocked UN efforts to end the genocide in Gaza since the start of the Israeli war in the strip in October 2023.
Morgan Ortagus, a senior US policy adviser, told AP council members ignored US warnings about the “unacceptable” language and instead adopted “performative action designed to draw a veto,” according to the AP.
“It fails to condemn Hamas or recognise Israel’s right to defend itself, and it wrongly legitimizes the false narratives benefiting Hamas, which have sadly found currency in this council.”
The vote came just days ahead of the annual gathering of world leaders at the UN General Assembly, where Gaza will be a major topic and where major U.S. allies, including France and the UK, are expected to recognize an independent Palestinian state.
The resolution, drafted by the council’s 10 elected members who serve two-year terms, goes further than previous drafts, highlighting the “deepening of suffering" of Palestinian civilians.
Algeria, one of the leaders of the resolution, expressed dismay at another failed Security Council action for Gaza, saying that it wanted to apologize to Palestinians for not doing enough to save civilians’ lives.
Israel's two-year-old genocidal and starvation war on Gaza has sparked outrage regionally and globally against Tel Aviv.
Israel’s carpet bombing of Gaza has killed at least 65,000 people and injured more than 165,000 others, and destroyed most of the strip, since the start of the war in October 2023.
In August, the UN declared famine in Gaza, the first ever in the Middle East, due to the Israeli blockade on the entry of humanitarian aid to 2.3 million Palestinians in the strip.
But, Alegria's UN ambassador, Amar Bendjama, said that despite the failure to pass, “14 courageous members of this Security Council raised their voice. They have acted with conscience and in the cause of the international public opinion.”
The resolution reiterated demands from previous resolutions, including for the release of all captives held by Hamas and other Palestinian groups.
The resolution expressed “deep alarm” after a report released last month by the world’s leading authority on food crises said Gaza City has become gripped by famine, and that it’s likely to spread across the territory without a ceasefire and an end to Israel's blockade on humanitarian aid entering Gaza.
The UNSC vote and the US veto come as the Israeli occupation army pressed on with a new military onslaught on Gaza City to ethnically cleanse 1.2million Palestinians from the north to the south of the strip.
The Israeli assault on Gaza City has been met with regional and international condemnations, but with unconditional support from the Trump administration.
It also comes two days after a team of independent experts commissioned by the U.N. Human Rights Council concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, issuing a report that called on the international community to end it and take steps to punish those responsible for it.
Last week, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to support a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict and urged Israel to commit to a Palestinian state.
The US veto of the resolution comes as about half of Americans say the Israeli military response in the Gaza Strip has “gone too far,” according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’s up from November 2023, when 40 percent said Israel’s military action had gone too far.
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