Israel lauded the United States while the Palestinian Authority accused it of genocide for vetoing a United Nations resolution that called for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
The resolution, which had the support of 13 out of the 15 UN Security Council members, did not condemn Hamas for the October 7 attack. The resolution also did not call for the release of the remaining 138 hostages or demand that the International Committee of the Red Cross visit them.
“I greatly appreciate the correct stance that the US has taken in the UN Security Council,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, explaining that it was impossible to both defeat Hamas and agree to a ceasefire.
“The other countries need to understand that, on the one hand, it is impossible to support the elimination of Hamas while, on the other hand, calling for a halt to the war, which will prevent the elimination of Hamas.”
“Therefore, Israel will continue our just war to eliminate Hamas and achieve the other goals of the war that we have set,” Netanyahu said on Saturday night.
Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said after Friday’s vote in New York that “a ceasefire at this time would prevent the collapse of the Hamas terrorist organization, which is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, and would enable it to continue ruling the Gaza Strip.”
Cohen said that Israel reacted “with gratitude to our ally, the US, for its support to continue the fight to bring the hostages home and to eliminate the Hamas terrorist organization, which will bring a better future to the region.”
The foreign minister also issued a scathing attack against UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who invoked a rare bureaucratic tool last used in 1989, to prompt a Security Council call for a ceasefire. The text itself was submitted by the United Arab Emirates, which holds one of 10 temporary security council seats.
The US, which has veto power as one of five permanent UNSC members, blocked the move. The United Kingdom, which is also a permanent member, abstained.
Cohen charged that Guterres’ action was akin to supporting Hamas. “Guterres’ appeal to stand on the side of Hamas and request a ceasefire disgraces his position and constitutes a mark of Cain on the UN.
“The invocation of Article 99, after it was not used for the war in Ukraine or for the civil war in Syria, is another example of Guterres’ biased and one-sided stance,” Cohen said.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called the US veto a “blatant violation of all humanitarian values and principles,” according to a statement posted on the Palestinian news agency WAFA, charging that the US was responsible “for the bloodshed of Palestinian children, women, and elderly in Gaza at the hands of Israeli occupation forces.”
The veto, Abbas said, is part of the Biden administration’s “shameful policy supporting the [Israeli] occupation and Israel’s brutal aggression against the Palestinian people.”
“This US policy makes it complicit in the crimes of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces against Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem,” Abbas stated.
“This decision will haunt the United States for years,” he added.
What is the message being sent?
Before Friday’s vote, Deputy UAE UN Ambassador Mohamed Abushahab asked the council, ”What is the message we are sending Palestinians if we cannot unite behind a call to halt the relentless bombardment of Gaza?”
“Indeed, what is the message we are sending civilians across the world who may find themselves in similar situations?”
In a debate Friday morning, before the vote later that afternoon, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan asked why the UN, including the Security Council, had failed to hold Hamas responsible for the Gaza war and its October 7 attack against Israel.
There was a seven-day pause to the war in Gaza at the end of November, he said, but then Hamas violated the terms of that agreement, not once, but several times.
“If this council wants to see a ceasefire, start by demanding it from Hamas,” Erdan said.
“Hamas is solely responsible for the humanitarian situation on the ground and they must be held fully accountable by the council,” he said. “When sitting in these meetings it feels as if Hamas does not exist at all.”
Erdan said that Israel was doing its utmost to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza, while he blamed the UN for not having the logistical capacity to handle the situation.
Hamas has shot at Palestinians to keep them away from humanitarian assistance and has stolen aid for their own use, he said.
Deputy US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood told the council that the draft resolution was a rushed, unbalanced text “that was divorced from reality, that would not move the needle forward on the ground in any concrete way.”“We do not support this resolution’s call for an unsustainable ceasefire that will only plant the seeds for the next war,” said Wood.
The US had offered substantial amendments to the draft, including a condemnation of the October 7 attack in which Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and 240 people were taken hostage.
Britain’s UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward said her country abstained because there was no condemnation of Hamas.“Israel needs to be able to address the threat posed by Hamas and it needs to do so in a manner that abides by international humanitarian law so that such an attack can never be carried out again,” she told the council.
Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour told the council the result of the vote was “disastrous,” adding: “Millions of Palestinian lives hang in the balance. Every single one of them is sacred, worth saving.”
“There is no effective protection of civilians,” Guterres told the council earlier on Friday, as he spoke of a situation in which over 1.8 million of the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced. Hamas has asserted that over 17,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in war-related violence. Israel has said that some 7,000 of them are terrorists.
Guterres said 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.”
A seven-day pause, during which Hamas released 105 hostages and there was an increase in badly needed humanitarian aid to Gaza, ended 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 “spiraling humanitarian nightmare.”
“There is a high risk of the total collapse of the humanitarian support system in Gaza, which would have devastating consequences.
“We anticipate that it would result in a complete breakdown of public order and increased pressure for mass displacement into Egypt,” Guterres said.
“I fear the consequences could be devastating for the security of the entire region,” he added.