US blocks UN Security Council demand for humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza

Thirteen Security Council members voted in favour of a brief draft resolution, put forward by the United Arab Emirates, while Britain abstained

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres attends a United Nations Security Council meeting about his invoking Article 99 of the United Nations charter to address the humanitarian crisis in the midst of conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas at the UN headquarters in New York City. Picture: REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

A resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza has failed to pass at the UN after the US blocked it.

Ahead of the vote, the UN Secretary-General had urged the Security Council to spare “no effort” to push for an immediate halt in violence, "for the protection of civilians and the urgent delivery of lifesaving aid”.

António Guterres said the people of Gaza are now “looking into the abyss” in a spiralling humanitarian crisis.

However, the US vetoed the resolution which was sponsored by 97 members including Ireland.

All other members of the UN Security Council voted in favour of the resolution, apart from the UK which abstained in the vote.

After the ballot, Robert Wood deputy US Ambassador to the UN told the Council that his country could not support an “unsustainable ceasefire" as it would only "plant the seeds for the next war".

"It would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on October 7. Any ceasefire that leaves Hamas in control of Gaza would deny Palestinian civilians the chance to build something better for themselves."

The spokesperson added that the resolution did not include a condemnation of the Hamas attack on October 7.

“Unfortunately, nearly all of our recommendations were ignored.

"The result of this rushed process was an imbalanced resolution that was divorced from reality."

The vote followed another day of bombardment across the Gaza Strip by Israel.

At least 17,000 have now been killed in the Palestinian enclave.

'Spiralling humanitarian nightmare'

A seven-day pause - that saw Hamas release some hostages and an increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza - ended on December 1.

After several failed attempts to take action, the Security Council last month called for pauses in fighting to allow aid access to Gaza, which Guterres on Friday described as a "spiralling humanitarian nightmare."

The US favours its own diplomacy, rather than Security Council action, to win the release of more hostages and press Israel to better protect civilians in Gaza as it retaliates for the Hamas attack that Israel says killed 1,200 people.

However, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged on Thursday that there was a "gap" between Israel's intent to protect civilians and what has happened on the ground. Gaza's Health Ministry says more than 17,480 people have been killed.

Israel has bombarded Gaza from the air, imposed a siege and launched a ground offensive. The vast majority of the Palestinian enclave's 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes.

"There is no effective protection of civilians," Guterres told the council earlier on Friday. "The people of Gaza are being told to move like human pinballs – ricocheting between ever-smaller slivers of the south, without any of the basics for survival. But nowhere in Gaza is safe."

In Washington, Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told reporters earlier on Friday that if the Security Council failed to adopt the resolution, "it is giving Israel a license to continue with its massacre of Palestinians in Gaza."

Along with demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the draft text said Palestinian and Israeli civilian populations must be protected and demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.

Israel's UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan told the Security Council earlier on Friday that there was a ceasefire that had been broken by Hamas on October 7.

"The irony is that regional stability and the security of both Israelis and Gazans can only be achieved once Hamas is eliminated, not one minute before," Erdan said. "So the true path to ensure peace is only through supporting Israel's mission - absolutely not to call for a ceasefire."

 - additional reporting by Reuters