Last week, the United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, with the Biden administration blocking the vote. The US is a permanent member of the 15-member council, which includes 10 non-permanent members, and is the only member to vote against the resolution.
UN Security Council Resolution for a Gaza ceasefire: What is it?
The latest UN draft resolution put forward by the Security Council called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. More than 40,000 have been killed in Gaza since the war started, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. However, that toll cannot be independently verified nor does it separate civilians from fighters.
The Council also demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all the hostages taken from Gaza. From the 251 hostages taken on October 7 when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists infiltrated southern Israel, it is believed 97 of them remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the Israel Defense Forces.
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The draft resolution would have rejected “any effort to starve Palestinians,” and demanded that the parties “fully, unconditionally, and without delay” implement all the provisions of Security Council resolution 2735.
Why does it matter that the US vetoed the UN resolution?
The US veto prevents the UN resolution from being enacted, which would see an end to the fighting as a first step to releasing the hostages.
The UN resolution “abandoned” the necessity to call for the “inextricably linked” end to the war with the release of the hostages, said the US after the vote.
US deputy envoy to the UN, Robert Wood, wrote in a response that “we made clear throughout negotiations we could not support an unconditional ceasefire that failed to release the hostages. Because, as this Council has previously called for, a durable end to the war must come with the release of the hostages.”
Hamas would not be pressured to come back to the negotiating table. Wood added: “Some members of this Council don’t want to confront the reality that, today, it is not Israel standing in the way of a ceasefire and hostage deal. It is Hamas” in the same statement. “Rather than adopting a resolution that emboldens Hamas, let’s instead demand Hamas implement Resolution 2735 without further condition or delay.”
While the Council resolutions are considered international law, the body cannot enforce them, therefore it could only impose punitive measures, including sanctions. Member nations would have to agree on such measures.
Since November 2023, Israel has attempted multiple ceasefire and hostage-release deals with Hamas. Talks have been repeatedly stalled for multiple considerations on both ends.
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The US has vetoed three other Security Council draft resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza
October 2023, the US responded: “The United States is disappointed this resolution made no mention of Israel’s right of self-dense.”
December 2023, US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood slammed the resolution, calling it “divorced from reality” and declared that ending military action would allow Hamas to stay in power.
February 2024, the US voted against the Algerian-proposed UN resolution, arguing that without requiring Hamas to release hostages, any durable peace plan would fail.
Cecilia Lazzaro Blasbalg is the editor-in-chief of the Mideast Journal with a decade of news editing and reporting at Haaretz and Times of Israel. She is a PhD candidate at Tel Aviv University.