US blocks UN security council resolution for immediate ceasefire in Gaza The US has vetoed a UN security council vote on a resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The UK abstained from the vote. World Food Programme describes "fear, chaos, despair" in Gaza Carl Skau, deputy director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), has been in Gaza and paints a bleak picture of humanitarian aid failing to reach those in need. A statement just released by the agency, a first-hand account written by Skau, makes depressing reading, and shows how aid workers are facing almost impossible odds to keep providing relief in the face of an unrelenting onslaught from Israel’s military: “Nothing quite prepared me for the fear, the chaos, and the despair we encountered,” he wrote. Confusion at warehouses, distribution points with thousands of desperate hungry people, supermarkets with bare shelves, and overcrowded shelters with bursting bathrooms. The dull thud of bombs was the soundtrack for our day. At a food distribution [point], one woman told me she lived with nine other families in one apartment. They take turns sleeping at night because not all could lay down at the same time. He praised WFP teams as doing “incredible work” inside Gaza while living through “an immense humanitarian crisis, while also trying to tackle that crisis”. He said the agency had reached more than one million people with food so far. They work resolutely every day, to prevent starvation among Gazans and keep finding creative solutions, despite the fear for their lives and the many challenges. “But this is no longer tenable,” he said: With law and order breaking down, any meaningful humanitarian operation is impossible. With just a fraction of the needed food supplies coming in, a fatal absence of fuel, interruptions to communications systems and no security for our staff or for the people we serve at food distributions, we cannot do our job. People in Gaza are desperate. You can see fear in the eyes of women and children. Gazans are living packed into unhealthy shelters or on the streets as winter closes in, they are sick, and they do not have enough food. Here are some of the latest images we have received over the newswires from Gaza. Palestine UN observer: US ceasefire veto a "turning point in history" The US veto of a United Nations resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza is “a turning point in history”, according to Riyad Mansour, the permanent observer of the state of Palestine to the UN. Mansour joined Russia (which failed to acknowledge its own actions in Ukraine while denouncing the “bloodbath” in Gaza) in a strongly worded address to the UN security council following the vote: This is a moment of truth. This is a turning point in history. It is beyond regrettable, it is disastrous, that the security council was again prevented from rising to this moment to uphold its clear responsibilities in the face of this grave crisis threatening human lives and threatening regional and international peace and security. Millions of Palestinian lives hang in the balance. Every single one of them is sacred, worth saving. [But] instead of allowing this council to uphold its mandate by finally making a clear call after two months of massacres that atrocities must end, the war criminals are given more time to perpetuate their crimes. How can this be justified? How can anyone justify the slaughter of an entire people? Those who were advocating for a prolonging of the assault on the one hand, while also pleading against the commission of atrocity on the other hand, should be convinced by now that the prolongation of this war, obviously, implies the continued commission of atrocities, the loss of more innocent lives, more destruction. Hundreds of people will be killed by this time tomorrow. Then hundreds more, and then thousands. Children will be killed, orphaned, wounded, disabled for life, not by mistake, but by design, because the killers have no regard whatsoever for Palestinian life. Russia: US and UK "complicit to merciless Israeli bloodbath" Russia was scathing in its criticism of the US and UK for respectively voting against and abstaining from the vote to support a resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza, saying “history will judge the actions of Washington DC”. Dmitry Polyanskiy, deputy charge d’affaires of the Russian Federation, told the UN security council after the vote failed: One can speak cynically with nice empty words about democracy, human rights, women, peace, security, rules, order, as much as you like. However, the real value of those we have just witnessed when two members of the security council preferred to remain complicit to the merciless Israeli bloodbath. I am confident that the outcome of our vote has resounded painfully in the hearts of ordinary people in the US and the UK, whose calls for peace and common sense have gone unheeded by the ruling elites of those countries. I’m confident that they will still express their opinion. We in the council have nothing left to do other than redoubling or tripling our efforts to try to come up with a decision that would alleviate the suffering of civilians within the limited toothless bounds that we have left to act in thanks to Washington and London. It’s important to ensure the implementation of [the] resolution regardless of how we do it. US envoy criticises "flawed" resolution "divorced from reality" Robert Wood, the US deputy ambassador to the UN security council, was critical of colleagues for introducing a “flawed” resolution that did not include condemnation of Hamas: All of our recommendations were ignored. And the result of this rushed process was an imbalanced resolution that was divorced from reality. It would not move the needle forward on the ground in any concrete way. We still cannot comprehend why the resolution’s authors declined to include language condemning Hamas’s horrific terrorist attack on Israel, an attack that killed over 1,200 people, women, children, the elderly, people from a range of nationalities burned alive, gunned down subjected to obscene sexual violence. We are very disappointed that for the victims of these heinous acts, the resolution’s authors offered not their condolences or condemnation of their murders. It’s unfathomable. Nor is there condemnation of the sexual violence unleashed by Hamas on October 7. US blames Hamas for decision to veto Gaza ceasefire resolution The US has blamed Hamas’s refusal to keep to the agreement to release young female hostages, and a failure of the United Nations to condemn the group’s attacks on Israel, for its decision to veto the UN security council resolution calling for a Gaza ceasefire. Robert Wood, deputy US ambassador to the UN, just told the council a ceasefire would “plant the seeds for the next war”: Even as we have supported the right of another member state to defend its people against heinous atrocities and acts of terrorism, the US at the highest levels has undertaken intensive diplomacy to save lives, and lay a foundation for durable peace. American diplomacy open the way for the first trucks that flowed into Gaza. With aid in partnership with Qatar and Egypt, it helped reunite more than 100 hostages with their loved ones and dramatically expanded aid to civilians in Gaza during a seven-day long humanitarian pause. Hamas however, has a different set of goals. Its refusal to release young women hostages led to a breakdown in the pause and resumption of the fighting. This council’s failure to condemn Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attacks, including its acts of sexual violence and other unthinkable evils, is a serious moral failure. It underscores the fundamental disconnect between the discussions that we have been having in this chamber and the realities on the ground. An undeniable part of that reality is that if Israel unilaterally laid down its weapons today as some member states have called for, Hamas would continue to hold hostages. Hamas continues to pose a threat to Israel and remain in charge of Gaza. That is not a threat that any one of our governments would allow to continue to remain on our own borders. For that reason, while the US strongly supports a durable peace, in which both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and security, we do not support calls for an immediate ceasefire. This would only plant the seeds for the next war. US blocks UN security council resolution for immediate ceasefire in Gaza The US has vetoed a UN security council vote on a resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The UK abstained from the vote. The UN representative for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), speaking before the security council vote, said at least 97 members states have co-sponsored its resolution. The resolution “is clear in its intention – an immediate humanitarian ceasefire”, he said. Saving lives right now, must supersede all other considerations, he added. The UN security council session has resumed and is expected to vote on a resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. We will bring you the results of the vote once they are in. Biden administration asks Congress to approve 45,000 shells for Israeli tanks - report The Biden administration has asked Congress to approve the sale of 45,000 shells for Israel’s Merkava tanks to be used in its offensive in Gaza, Reuters is reporting, citing a US official and former US official. The potential sale is worth more than $500m (£399m) and is under informal review by the Senate foreign relations and House of Representatives foreign affairs committees, it said. The US state department is pushing the congressional committees to quickly approve the transaction, a former state department spokesperson, Josh Paul, told Reuters. He said: This went to committees earlier this week and they are supposed to have 20 days to review Israel cases. State [department] is pushing them to clear now. The UN security council vote on backing an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza has been delayed again. The vote was scheduled to take place about half an hour ago, after it was first delayed again in the morning. Ambassadors are now meeting behind closed doors over the final text of the resolution, after which a vote should commence. The draft demands an immediate humanitarian ceasefire as well as an immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. It also reiterates the demand of the council for all warring parties to comply with their obligations under international law, notably with regard to protection of civilians in both Palestine and Israel. Draft resolutions do not represent an official position of the security council until they are adopted.