US blocks UN Security Council demand for immediate Gaza ceasefire

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The United States has vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.

The United Kingdom abstained from the vote on Friday, while 13 Security Council members voted in favour of a draft resolution brought forward by the United Arab Emirates.

The resolution also called for the immediate release of all prisoners taken during the bloody two-month conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Robert Wood, deputy US ambassador to the UN, told the security council that such a ceasefire “would only plant the seeds for the next war.”

“Even as we have supported the right of another member state to defend its people against heinous atrocities and acts of terrorism, the US at the highest levels has undertaken intensive diplomacy to save lives, and lay a foundation for durable peace,” he said, according to The Guardian.

“American diplomacy opened the way for the first trucks that flowed into Gaza. With aid in partnership with Qatar and Egypt, it helped reunite more than 100 hostages with their loved ones and dramatically expanded aid to civilians in Gaza during a seven-day-long humanitarian pause.

“Hamas however, has a different set of goals. Its refusal to release young women hostages led to a breakdown in the pause and resumption of the fighting. This council’s failure to condemn Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attacks, including its acts of sexual violence and other unthinkable evils, is a serious moral failure.”

He added: “For that reason, while the US 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. This would only plant the seeds for the next war.”

Draft resolutions do not become the official position of the UN Security Council until they are adopted.

A seven-day pause in hostilities in the enclave, which allowed the release of hostages and prisoners and the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, ended on 1 December.

Joe Biden has consistently rejected a unilateral ceasefire saying that Hamas should release all of the hostages taken from Israel on 7 October.

Around 1,200 people were killed by Hamas militants in their surprise attack on Israel. Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 17,480 people have been killed during the ongoing Israeli response on the enclave.