Fourteen countries on UN Security Council voted for Gaza ceasefire. One country held out

The United States has vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution that demanded an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza and unhindered aid access across the war-torn enclave.

The other 14 countries on the council voted in favour of the draft on Thursday (AEST) as a humanitarian crisis grips the enclave of more than 2 million people, where famine looms and aid has only trickled in since Israel lifted an 11-week blockade last month.

Displaced Palestinians walk through a makeshift tent camp in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Wednesday. Credit: AP

“The United States has been clear: we would not support any measure that fails to condemn Hamas and does not call for Hamas to disarm and leave Gaza,” acting US ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea told the council before the vote, arguing that it would also undermine US-led efforts to broker a ceasefire.

Washington is Israel’s biggest ally and arms supplier.

The Security Council vote came as Israel pushes ahead with an offensive in Gaza after ending a two-month truce in March. Hamas-run health authorities in Gaza said Israeli strikes killed 45 people on Wednesday, while Israel said a soldier died in fighting.

Britain’s UN ambassador Barbara Woodward criticised the Israeli government’s decisions to expand its military operations in Gaza and severely restrict humanitarian aid as “unjustifiable, disproportionate and counterproductive”.

Israel has rejected calls for an unconditional or permanent ceasefire, saying Hamas cannot stay in Gaza. Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon told the council members who voted in favour of the draft: “You chose appeasement and submission. You chose a road that does not lead to peace. Only to more terror.”

Hamas condemned the US veto, describing it as showing “the US administration’s blind bias” towards Israel. The draft Security Council resolution had also demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas and others.

Rival aid operations

The war in Gaza has raged since Hamas militants killed 1200 people in Israel on October, 7 2023, and took some 250 hostages back to the enclave, according to Israeli tallies. Many of those killed or captured were civilians.

On Thursday, Israel said it had recovered the bodies of two more hostages, husband and wife Gad Haggai and Judih Weinstein. In a statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said their bodies had been brought back to Israel after a special operation in the Khan Younis area of Gaza.

Following their recovery, 56 hostages are still held by Hamas, with fewer than half believed to be alive, according to Israeli estimates.

Israel’s military campaign against Hamas has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas-run Gaza health authorities, which do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. They say civilians have borne the brunt of the attacks and that thousands more bodies have been lost under rubble.

Under global pressure, Israel allowed limited UN-led deliveries to resume on May 19. A week later, a controversial new aid distribution system was launched by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), backed by the US and Israel.

Israel has long accused Hamas of stealing aid, which the group denies. Israel and the US are urging the UN to work through the GHF, which is using private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.

“No one wants to see Palestinian civilians in Gaza go hungry or thirsty,” Shea told the Security Council, adding that the draft resolution did not “acknowledge the disastrous shortcomings of the prior method of aid delivery”.

The UN and international aid groups have refused to work with the GHF because they say it is not neutral, militarises aid, and forces the displacement of Palestinians.

The GHF distributed no aid on Wednesday as it pressed the Israeli military to boost civilian safety beyond the perimeter of its so-called secure distribution sites after a deadly incident on Tuesday.

The group said it has asked the Israeli military to “guide foot traffic in a way that minimises confusion or escalation risks” near military positions, provide clearer civilian guidance and enhance training of soldiers on civilian safety.

Delays and denials

The GHF posted on Facebook that “ongoing maintenance work” would delay the opening of its distribution sites on Thursday. It said on Tuesday that it had distributed more than 7 million meals since it began operating.

Despite US and Israeli criticism of the UN-led Gaza aid operation, a US ceasefire plan proposes the delivery of aid by the UN, the Red Crescent and other agreed channels. Israel has agreed to the ceasefire plan, but Hamas is seeking changes that the US has rejected as “totally unacceptable”.

Ahead of the vote, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher again appealed for the United Nations and aid groups to be allowed to assist people in Gaza, stressing that they have a plan, supplies and experience.

“Open the crossings – all of them. Let in lifesaving aid at scale, from all directions. Lift the restrictions on what and how much aid we can bring in. Ensure our convoys aren’t held up by delays and denials,” Fletcher said in a statement.

The UN has long blamed Israel and lawlessness in the enclave for hindering the delivery of aid and its distribution throughout the war zone.

“Enough of suffering of civilians. Enough of food being used as a weapon. Enough is enough is enough,” Slovenia’s UN ambassador Samuel Zbogar told the Security Council.

A similar humanitarian-focused draft resolution is now expected to be put to a vote in the 193-member General Assembly, where no countries have veto power, and it would likely pass, diplomats said.

Israel’s Danon warned: “Don’t waste more of your time because no resolution, no vote, no moral failure, will stand in our way.”

Reuters

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