United States Mission to the United Nations
An emergency UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza was vetoed by the United States on Friday. This comes as Israel continues a major offensive in Gaza following a deadly October attack by Hamas militants.
According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, over 17,000 Palestinians have been killed in the recent fighting, most of them civilians. Israel states that its operations aim to eliminate Hamas in response to the group's unprecedented October 7th border attack which killed around 1,200 Israelis. Hamas is still holding 138 hostages from that attack, Israel says.
Large portions of Gaza have been heavily damaged, with the UN estimating 80% of Gaza's population displaced. Residents face critical shortages of basic supplies like food, water and medicine.
Security Council members fail to adopt resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Middle East.
— United Nations (@UN) December 8, 2023
Humanitarian organizations, including UN and partners, have warned that the situation in Gaza is near total collapse. https://t.co/Zs8c7gpx2c pic.twitter.com/8oQC2vMR8l
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres invoked a rarely-used Article 99 of the UN Charter article to call the emergency Security Council session urging a ceasefire. But the proposed resolution was labelled “divorced from reality” by the US deputy representative, Robert Wood, who vetoed it.
Robert Wood said, "Unfortunately, nearly all of our recommendations were ignored. And the result of this rushed process was an imbalanced resolution that was divorced from reality and that would not move the needle forward on the ground in any concrete way. And so, we regretfully could not support it."
While the US vetoed the resolution, the United Kingdom abstained from voting on a proposed UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate Gaza ceasefire, according to statements made by UK Ambassador Barbara Woodward. She explained that the UK could not support the draft resolution because it failed to condemn Hamas for its October 7 attack against Israeli civilians.
"Simply calling for a ceasefire ignores Hamas' acts of terror and taking of civilian hostages," Amb. Woodward noted.
The UN World Health Organisation (WHO) warned the international community of the collapsing civilisation in Gaza. "People are starting to cut down telephone poles to have a little bit of firewood to keep warm or maybe cook, if they have anything available," WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said
The resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was introduced by representatives of the United Arab Emirates with the backing of over 90 states. 13 members of the UNSC voted in favour of the resolution while the UK abstained and the US vetoed it.
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