US blocks Gaza ceasefire and aid resolution at UN Security Council

The US has vetoed an otherwise unanimous Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access in Gaza, saying it would undermine ongoing diplomacy.

UN Security Council members vote on the resolution calling for a ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access in Gaza, at UN headquarters in New York, on Wednesday. Picture: Leonardo Munoz / AFP

The United States has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access in Gaza, which Washington claimed would undermine ongoing diplomacy to resolve the conflict.

The 14 other Security Council members backed the resolution.

The veto was the first wielded by Washington since US President Donald Trump took office in January.

It was also the 15-member body’s first vote on the situation since November, when the US – a key Israeli ally – also blocked a text calling for an end to fighting.

“This resolution would undermine diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire that reflects the realities on the ground and emboldens Hamas,” Washington’s United Nations envoy, Dorothy Shea, said ahead of the vote.

“This resolution also draws false equivalence between Israel and Hamas,” she said.

US ambassador Dorothy Shea speaks during the UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday. Picture: AFP

The draft resolution had demanded “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza respected by all parties’’.

It also called for the “immediate, dignified and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas and other groups’’.

Underlining a “catastrophic humanitarian situation” in the Palestinian territory, the resolution, had it passed, would have demanded the lifting of all restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Israel has faced growing international pressure to end its war in Gaza, which was triggered by the unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israeli soil.

That scrutiny has increased over flailing aid distribution in Gaza, which Israel blocked for more than two months before allowing a small number of UN vehicles to enter in mid-May.

The United Nations said that was not enough to meet the humanitarian needs.

A US-backed relief effort called the Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF) has also faced criticism for going against longstanding humanitarian principles by co-ordinating relief efforts with a military belligerent.

Israeli bombardment on Wednesday killed at least 16 people in the Gaza Strip, including 12 in a single strike on a tent housing displaced people, the Palestinian territory’s civil defence agency told AFP.

On Tuesday, 27 people were killed in southern Gaza when Israeli troops opened fire near a GHF aid site, with the military saying the incident was under investigation.

Israel’s ambassador Danny Danon at the Security Council meeting on Wednesday. Picture: AFP

Permanent observer for Palestine, Riyad Mansour, speaks during the Security Council meeting to vote on a resolution calling for a ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access in Gaza. Picture: AFP

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, on Tuesday urged the Council to act.

“All of us will be judged by history as to how much have we done in order to stop this crime against the Palestinian people,” he said.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, attacked the text ahead of the vote.

“This resolution doesn’t advance humanitarian relief. It undermines it. It ignores a working system in favour of political agendas,” he said.

“It ignores the one party still endangering civilians in Gaza: Hamas.”

Later Mr Mansour said he would now seek a vote on the resolution calling for a ceasefire at the General Assembly.

“We are grateful for your demonstrations and tenacity in the Security Council demanding action, and we also support you in continuing to knock on the door of the Security Council to shoulder its responsibility,” he said, thanking the 14 countries that backed the resolution.

Mr Danon said that the Palestinian plan to put the resolution to a vote at the General Assembly, where no country can veto it, was pointless, telling countries “don’t waste more of your energy’’.

“This will remain not only a moral stain on the conscience of this council, but a fateful moment of political application that will reverberate for generations,” said Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN Asim Ahmad.

China’s ambassador to the UN, Fu Cong said “today’s vote result once again exposes that the root cause of the council’s inability to quell the conflict in Gaza is the repeated obstruction by the US’’.

The veto marks Washington’s first such action since US President Donald Trump took office in January.

AFP