Draft resolution calls for ‘immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire' in Gaza Strip
The US veto of a draft UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip amounts to direct support for the Israeli genocide against Palestinians, Hamas said Wednesday.
In a statement, the Palestinian group called the veto “an arrogant stance that reflects US contempt for international law and its outright rejection of any international effort to stop the bloodshed of the Palestinian people.”
It stressed that the US position “serves as a green light for the war criminal (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, to continue the brutal genocide against innocent civilians, including children, women and the elderly in Gaza, reaffirming America's full complicity in this ongoing crime.”
The draft resolution called for an "immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire" in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas added that “what the US representative presented during the voting session is nothing but a continuation of Washington's approach of distortion and reversal of facts and a denial of our Palestinian people's legitimate rights to resist occupation and determine their own destiny.”
The group stressed that “the Security Council's failure to stop a war that has continued for twenty months, along with its inability to break the blockade or allow in food supplies, raises fundamental questions about the role of international institutions and the relevance of international laws and conventions, which the occupation continues to violate daily without accountability or real action.”
It called on the international community to “urgently act to address this moral and political collapse and to pressure for an immediate halt to the genocidal war and hold occupation leaders accountable for their crimes against the Palestinian people.”
The US previously vetoed four Security Council draft resolutions that called for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza -- in October 2023, December 2023, February 2024 and November 2024 -- while abstaining in votes on other draft resolutions.
Israel, rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, has pursued a genocidal offensive in Gaza since October 2023, killing over 54,600 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Aid agencies have warned about the risk of famine among the enclave's more than 2 million inhabitants.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war crimes against civilians in the enclave.
