The US is facing criticism from the Palestinian Authority for the West Bank, as well as other global leaders and organizations after vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate halt to humanitarian aid in the Israeli-Palestine conflict
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres invoked Article 99 in a rare move to force a vote on the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, prompting an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Friday. The Palestinian health ministry says 17,000 people have been killed since the Oct. 16 attacks. 7 attacks that killed 1,200 people and took an estimated 240 hostages as part of Israel’s campaign to eliminate the militant group. More than 100 remain in captivity.
Notably, the resolution proposed by the United Arab Emirates was vetoed by the United States and supported by more than 90 member states. There were 13 votes in favour, with the United Kingdom abstaining.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the US. the suppression force has “indulged in war crimes in Gaza. “The president described America’s position as aggressive and immoral, a flagrant violation of all humanitarian principles and values, and that the United States was responsible for the bloodshed among Palestinian children, women and elderly people in the Gaza Strip on him,” he added.
Prime Minister Mohamed Shtayy said the veto was “an insult and another blank check to the occupied state to carry out genocide, destruction and displacement”.
Palestinian authorities criticized the U.S. vetoed it vehemently, saying they considered Washington’s move “immoral and inhumane”.
Hamas political bureau member Izzat al-Rishek said in a statement: “Preventing the United States from blocking the ceasefire resolution is a direct complicity of the project in the killing of our people and genocide and other ethnic cleansing.”
Interestingly, Israeli UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan has personally addressed the UN after the vote, but said in a statement that “a ceasefire will be reached once all hostages are returned and Hamas is destroyed”.
Robert Wood, U.S. Attorney; the deputy ambassador to the United Nations told the panel that the decision-making process was a hasty balancing of texts “without relation to reality and would not move the thing forward in any particular direction on the ground”.
He said the decision included condemning the ‘militant group Hamas’, which attacked Israel in Oct. 7, and an estimated 1,200 people were killed. The resolution also does not take into account Israel’s right to self-defense, he added.