The United States on Wednesday vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, as fighting there enters a 14th month and a humanitarian crisis intensifies.
Fourteen Security Council members voted for the resolution, and only the United States voted against it.
The United States said it vetoed the resolution, the fifth the Council has taken up, because it did not make the cease-fire contingent on the release of the hostages held in Gaza. The resolution does call for the release of all hostages, but the wording suggests that their release would come only after a cease-fire is implemented.
The veto was the fourth time the United States blocked an effort by the Council to demand a cease-fire since the war began over a year ago when Hamas attacked Israel and took more than 200 people hostage. In the months since, more than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the local health authorities.
The veto comes as Washington has been working for months to help negotiate a cease-fire between the parties and a deal to release the hostages.
“We could not support an unconditional cease-fire that failed to release the hostages,” said Robert A. Wood, an American ambassador to the U.N. “These two urgent goals are inexplicably linked. This resolution abandoned that necessity.”
The resolution called for an immediate and unconditional cease-fire, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, increased and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid and for all parties to enable the battered Palestinian aid agency UNRWA to carry out its work in the territory.
The resolution was put forth by 10 nonpermanent members of the Security Council: Algeria, Ecuador, Guyana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia and Switzerland.
“It is a sad day for the Security Council, for the United Nations and for the international community,” said Algeria’s ambassador, Amar Bendjama. He said the 14 members who supported the resolution had spoken for the wider international community.
The draft resolution was negotiated for weeks, Guyana’s ambassador, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, said ahead of the vote. She said the Council needed to respond to concerns “over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza,” and particularly the dire situation in northern Gaza.
The Security Council, whose permanent members are divided over the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, has struggled to speak in one voice and play an effective role in mediating or ending these conflicts. The deadlock over Gaza in the Council has been the result of U.S. policy and has invited criticism of staunch U.S. support for Israel and frustrated the wider U.N. membership, including some of America’s closest allies, the permanent council members, Britain and France.
The Council has tried to bring the war in Gaza to the table for action in the past year with multiple resolutions. The United States blocked three previous resolutions calling for a cease-fire and release of hostages saying at the time that Israel had the right to defend itself and it was not yet time for the war to end.
In March the United States abstained from voting on a resolution that called for a temporary halt to the fighting for the month of Ramadan.
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