US condemned for veto of UN ceasefire resolution

Photo: Frayed health care and an overwhelmed global humanitarian system imperil the health of civilians in Gaza, cautions Hopkins expert Paul Spiegel. Over 29,000 people mostly women and children have been killed in Gaza since October 7 . A total of 103 Palestinians were killed in the past 24 hours of Israeli strikes . Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva compared Israel’s genocide in the war against Hamas to the Holocaust. “It’s not a war of soldiers against soldiers. It’s a war between a highly prepared army and women and children ”, he said

By Lyndal Rowlands and Alastair Mccrea

• “The message given today to Israel with this veto is that it can continue to get away with murder,” Palestine’s United Nations envoy Riyad Mansour says.
• Rejecting a UN Security Council (UNSC) ceasefire resolution shows “approval of starvation as a means of war”, says Algeria’s ambassador to the UN, Amar Bendjama.
• “We are appalled to hear of this new low in an already deep pit of failures from the international community,” Save the Children’s director for the occupied Palestinian territories Jason Lee says, as the US vetoes the resolution which was supported by 13 of the UNSC’s 15 members.
• Stopping World Food Programme (WFP) aid to northern Gaza would be a “death sentence” for 750,000 people, says Gaza’s government’s media office.
• At least 29,195 Palestinians have been killed and 69,170 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, the Health Ministry says. The death toll in Israel from the October 7 Hamas-led attacks stands at 1,139.
• France’s UN envoy Nicolas de Riviere has expressed regret that a UNSC ceasefire resolution “could not be adopted, given the disastrous situation” in Gaza.
• De Riviere added that France, which voted for the resolution, would continue to work towards all captives being released and for a ceasefire to be “implemented immediately”.
• China’s Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun has said that the United States’s veto “stifles” “overwhelming consensus” among the UNSC’s members on a ceasefire in Gaza. “The US veto sends a wrong message, pushing the situation in Gaza into a more dangerous one,” Zhang added in a post on social media.
• Russia’s envoy to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, told the Security Council ahead of a vote on the resolution that the goal of Washington is not to achieve peace in the Middle East or to protect civilians.
• The Saudi Foreign Ministry has expressed the Kingdom’s regret over the US veto of a UN Security Council resolution proposing an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the Saudi Press Agency has reported. The Kingdom has emphasized that this undermines efforts aimed at fostering dialogue and achieving a peaceful resolution to the Palestinian cause, as outlined in applicable international resolutions.
• Al Jazeera / News Agencies