US vetoes UN resolution on Gaza ceasefire

“The United States rejects this unacceptable resolution,” Counselor Morgan Ortagus told the session, which came the week before the UN’s General Assembly meetings, where the conflict will be a major issue. Ortagus said the resolution fails to adequately condemn Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the US and the EU.

All 14 other Security Council members voted in favor of the resolution. The document called the humanitarian situation in Gaza “catastrophic” and appealed to Israel to lift all restrictions on delivery of aid. Thursday’s vote marks the sixth veto that the US has used to block a resolution on Gaza since 2023.

The US veto underlined US and Israeli isolation over the war. Next week, several US allies are expected to recognize an independent Palestinian state. A UN body this week determined that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, following on another UN arm’s declaration of famine in the area in August.

“What happens in Gaza today is horrendous,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters on Tuesday. “We are seeing massive destruction of neighborhoods, now the systematic destruction of Gaza City, we are seeing massive killing of civilians in a way that I do not remember in any conflict since I am secretary-general.”

After almost two years of fighting, much of Gaza has been reduced to rubble. The Hamas-run health ministry claims more than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, which was triggered by the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 in which 1,200 Israelis died.