Security Council today failed to adopt a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages and for Israel to immediately and unconditionally lift all restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave, as the United States vetoed the measure despite affirmative votes by the other 14 members of the 15-nation organ.
Introducing the draft, the representative of Denmark also spoke for the other nine elected members of the Council, who “represent every region of the world” — as well as “the will and the expectations of the members of the General Assembly by whom we were elected”. She noted that famine in Gaza has been “confirmed”, with desperate mothers “forced to boil leaves to feed their children”, people killed as they try to get food to survive and a generation at risk of being lost. She cited a “humanitarian and human failure that has compelled us to act today” on a text resulting from weeks of consultations — its sole intent being to ease suffering and “contribute to the end of this abhorrent war”.
However, the United States’ representative warned that the resolution was deeply flawed, as it demanded a ceasefire that would leave Hamas in power and allow it to regroup. “[United States] President [Donald] Trump will never accept this,” she said, rejecting what she called a “false equivalence” between Israel’s right to defend itself and Hamas’s campaign of terror. Gaza’s humanitarian suffering, she emphasized, is the result of Hamas’s actions, not Israel’s. That State works daily to deliver aid, which must reach civilians who need it rather than sustain Hamas. She concluded by demanding that Hamas release all hostages and surrender immediately. Läs pressmeddelande