The United States has torpedoed attempts to adopt “balanced” UN Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, according to Vasily Nebenzya, Moscow’s permanent UN representative.
“The U.S. [Security Council] delegation has sabotaged any attempt to develop a balanced and depoliticized document aimed at taking urgent measures to deescalate the situation,” Mr. Nebenzya said on Nov. 16.
He made the remarks shortly after the UN Security Council adopted a Malta-drafted resolution calling for a “pause” to the fighting to allow humanitarian aid into the besieged Gaza Strip.
“Pauses” are generally regarded as shorter and less binding than “ceasefires,” which both warring parties must agree to.
While the United States has voiced support for a “pause” in the fighting, Moscow has repeatedly pushed for an all-out “ceasefire” and “cessation of hostilities.”
The adoption of the Security Council resolution, which is binding, comes after four unsuccessful attempts to agree on an appropriate response to the crisis.
Previous attempts were stymied largely by disagreements over whether the resolution should call for a humanitarian “pause” or a “ceasefire.”
Since the Hamas terrorist group attacked Israel on Oct. 7, Israeli warplanes have relentlessly pounded the Gaza Strip, reducing entire neighborhoods to rubble and, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, killing more than 11,500 Palestinians, two-thirds of whom were women and children.
Hamas has governed the Gaza Strip since 2006.
An estimated 1,200 Israelis—both civilians and military personnel—were killed in the attacks by Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist group by the United States, the United Kingdom, and the EU.
Hamas also took some 240 Israeli hostages in hopes of exchanging them for thousands of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
The newly adopted Security Council resolution calls for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip for a sufficient number of days to enable ... rapid, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access.”
It further calls for the “immediate and unconditional release” of all hostages held by Hamas and other Palestinian groups.
Twelve of the council’s 15 members voted in favor of the resolution; the United States, Russia, and the UK—all permanent council members—abstained.
The United States and Britain abstained because the resolution failed to condemn Hamas’s deadly cross-border raid.
“The United States could not vote ‘yes’ on a text that did not condemn Hamas or reaffirm the right of all member states to protect their citizens from terrorist attacks,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Washington’s UN envoy, said after the vote.
Russia abstained because the resolution failed to include a demand for an “immediate ceasefire.”
Before the vote, Mr. Nebenzya tried—unsuccessfully—to amend the text of the resolution to include a demand for an “immediate, durable, and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities.”
Five council members voted in favor of Mr. Nebenzya’s proposed amendment, and nine abstained.
The United States was alone in voting against the Russian-proposed amendment, which fell short of obtaining the nine “yes” votes needed to pass.
“Under pressure from Washington, the language of the resolution has been emasculated,” Mr. Nebenzya said after the vote.
The final text of the resolution, he added, “doesn’t even ‘demand’ a humanitarian pause, but merely ‘calls for’ one, making a mockery of the council’s prerogative.”
The Russian envoy accused the United States of endorsing the “annihilation of the Palestinians, including the civilian population, with slogans about the ‘fight against terrorism’ and Israel’s ‘right to self-defense.’”
Ms. Thomas-Greenfield, by contrast, hailed the resolution’s adoption by the Security Council as a “step forward.”
Israeli envoy to the UN Gilad Erdan described the resolution as “meaningless” and “disconnected from reality.”
Denouncing its failure to condemn Hamas, he accused the terrorist group of deliberately allowing Gaza’s humanitarian situation to deteriorate so that the UN would pressure Israel to halt its attacks.
“This will not happen,” Mr. Erdan said. “Israel will continue to act until Hamas is destroyed and the hostages are returned.”
Only 225 square miles in size, the Hamas-run Gaza Strip has remained subject to a crippling blockade by both Israel and Egypt since 2007.
Critics of the Israeli-Egyptian restriction of the movement of goods and people into and out of the area have described Gaza, which is home to some 2 million Palestinians, as the “world’s largest open-air prison.”
