An extraordinary UN bid to call for a ceasefire in Gaza was blocked by the United States on Friday while Israeli forces continued a relentless offensive to destroy Hamas after its deadly attack two months ago.
The fighting has left 17,487 people dead in the Palestinian territory, mostly women and children, according to the latest count from the Hamas-run health ministry.
Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas over its unprecedented attack on October 7 when militants broke through Gaza’s militarised border to kill around 1,200 people and seize hostages, 138 of whom remain captive, according to Israeli figures.
Vast areas of Gaza have been reduced to a wasteland. The UN says about 80 percent of the population has been displaced, facing dire shortages of food, fuel, water and medicine, and the growing threat of disease.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres invoked the rarely-used Article 99 of the UN Charter to convene an emergency Security Council meeting calling for an immediate ceasefire.
He urged the release of hostages, but said “the brutality perpetrated by Hamas can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people”.
But the US, which supplies billions of dollars in military assistance to Israel, vetoed the resolution.
Its deputy representative at the UN, Robert Wood, said it was “divorced from reality” and “would have not moved the needle forward on the ground”.
That was in spite of warnings from the World Health Organization that civilisation was collapsing in Gaza.
“People are starting to cut down telephone poles to have a little bit of firewood to keep warm or maybe cook, if they have anything available,” WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said the Security Council was “complicit in the ongoing slaughter”.