By: Editor
The United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution Friday calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The vote came after UN chief António Guterres warned of a high risk of the collapse of the humanitarian support system that could lead to dire consequences in the embattled enclave.
During the debate, the Palestinian ambassador cited the thousands killed or injured in Israel’s assault on Gaza, saying “enough is enough,” while Israel’s envoy said a ceasefire would only extend the war, and that the only option for peace was to eliminate Hamas.
Israel says men in Gaza seen in images of a mass detention by the Israeli military were “suspected terrorists,” while Hamas claimed Israel of targeting “a group of displaced Palestinian civilians.” At least some of the men detained were civilians with no known affiliation to militant groups, CNN has reported.
Israel’s military said it carried out strikes on about 450 targets over the past day, the highest number reported since the end of a truce with Hamas a week ago. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant claimed Friday that he sees signs Hamas is at a breaking point in Gaza.
Here’s how to help humanitarian efforts in Israel and Gaza.
Amid an intense Israeli operation in Gaza, more than 70 fatalities have arrived at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza in the past 24 hours, the Hamas-controlled health ministry in the enclave said Saturday.
“Seventy-one martyrs and 160 injured arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the past 24 hours due to the continuous Israeli bombardment on the central governorate in the Gaza Strip,” the ministry said in a statement.
The update comes after a health ministry spokesperson Friday said the occupancy rate in Gaza hospitals had reached 262%, warning that medical institutions have run out of key supplies.
Nearly 17,500 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 7, the health ministry also said that day.
Russia Slams Israel
Russia slams US as ‘complicit in massacre’ after veto of UN ceasefire resolution
From CNN’s Simone McCarthy
Russia hit out at the United States after its veto Friday of a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, with its diplomat accusing Washington of being “complicit in Israel’s brutal massacre” in a statement to the council following the vote.
“Our American colleagues have condemned thousands – if not tens of thousands – more civilians in Palestine and Israel, including women and children, to death, along with the UN workers who are trying to help them,” said the Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky.
“One can say many beautiful but empty words about democracy, human rights, peace, security, some rules and order, but today, we learned the true value of these words as two members of the UN Security Council preferred to remain complicit in Israel’s brutal massacre,” the diplomat said, in an apparent allusion to the US and the UK, which abstained from voting.
Russia was among 13 countries that voted in favor of the draft resolution on Gaza, which demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the immediate and unconditional release of hostages as well as humanitarian access to the strip.
Russia has repeatedly vetoed UN Security Council draft resolutions calling for the end of its on-going attack on Ukraine.
Friday’s vote followed mounting international pressure for an end to the fighting in Gaza and more aid for the enclave, where the UN has said the humanitarian support system is on the edge of collapse.
After the vote, the US said the resolution was “divorced from reality,” and “would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat” the attacks it committed against Israel on October 7.
The United Arab Emirates, which tabled the resolution, condemned the council’s inability to demand a ceasefire, asking: “What is the message we are sending Palestinians if we cannot unite behind a call to halt the relentless bombardment of Gaza?”
China expressed its “great disappointment and regret” that the US vetoed the draft, with its UN envoy saying “any negative attitude” toward a ceasefire was “untenable” and justification against it “remains feeble.”
“It needs to be pointed out that condoning the continuation of fighting while claiming to care about the lives and safety of the people in Gaza and the humanitarian needs there is self-contradictory,” Ambassador Zhang Jun said.
“All this shows once again what double standard is,” he said.
France said it did “not see any contradiction in the fight against terrorism and the protection of civilians,” and added that with a lack of unity in the council, the crisis in Gaza is “getting worse and… runs the risk of extending.”
Sources: CNN
