U.S. Casts Sole Vote Against Gaza Cease-Fire Resolution

The U.S. veto at the U.N. came as the Biden administration’s envoy in Lebanon reported “additional progress” on cease-fire talks in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

The United States on Wednesday vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where fighting has raged for more than 13 months and a humanitarian crisis is intensifying.

Underlining Washington’s diplomatic isolation on the issue, the United States cast the sole vote against the resolution, with the 14 other Council members voting in favor.

The United States said it vetoed the resolution, the fifth the Council has taken up, because it did not make the cease-fire contingent on the release of the hostages still being held in Gaza. The resolution does call for the release of all hostages, but the wording suggests that their release would come only after a cease-fire was implemented.

The impasse at the United Nations appeared in contrast to cease-fire talks in Lebanon, where a top U.S. envoy, Amos Hochstein, said on Wednesday that there had been “additional progress” in efforts to halt the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group allied with Hamas. Mr. Hochstein, saying he hoped “to try to bring this to a close if we can," traveled to Israel on Wednesday evening.

The leader of Hezbollah said Wednesday that the war’s end was now in the hands of Israeli leaders.

The U.S. veto on Wednesday was the fourth time the United States has blocked an effort by the Council to demand a cease-fire in Gaza since last year, when Hamas led an attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people and took more than 200 others hostage. More than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the local health authorities, and the territory faces the risk of famine, experts say.

In speech after speech at the Council on Wednesday, the 14 diplomats who voted for the resolution said the suffering, death, displacement and starvation unfolding in Gaza was catastrophic and unacceptable. Ending the fighting, they said, was a necessary first step to release the hostages, about 100 of whom remain in Gaza, and to save civilians.

In the eyes of many nations, the Biden administration’s legacy will be colored by its staunch defense of Israel.

“This will sadly further weaken Biden’s reputation in the U.N. bubble,” said Richard Gowan, the U.N. director of the International Crisis Group. “He was once seen as a welcome replacement for Trump. But he leaves office with low marks among most U.N. diplomats who think he has been egregiously obstructive on Gaza.”

Although Security Council resolutions are considered international law, the Council lacks enforcement powers. It could impose punitive measures, such as sanctions, but that would also require member states to agree.

Washington, while working with Qatar and Egypt for months for a cease-fire deal and the release of hostages, has backed Israel’s position that one cannot come before the other.

“We could not support an unconditional cease-fire that failed to release the hostages,” said Robert A. Wood, an American ambassador to the United Nations. “These two urgent goals are inextricably linked. This resolution abandoned that necessity.”

After the vote, Israel’s ambassador, Danny Danon, thanked the United States and blamed Hamas for the suffering of Palestinian civilians. “The resolution brought before this chamber was not a path to peace,” he said. “It was a road map to more terror, more suffering, and more bloodshed.”

The two-page resolution called for an immediate and unconditional cease-fire; the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza; increased and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid; and for all parties to enable the battered U.N. agency that helps Palestinians, known as UNRWA, to carry out its work in Gaza and the West Bank.

“A cease-fire will allow to save lives, all lives,” said Majed Bamya, the deputy Palestinian ambassador to the Council. “A cease-fire doesn’t resolve everything, but it is the first step toward resolving anything.”

The resolution was put forth by the 10 nonpermanent Council members: Algeria, Ecuador, Guyana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, South Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia and Switzerland.

“It is a sad day for the Security Council, for the United Nations and for the international community,” Algeria’s ambassador, Amar Bendjama, said after the vote.

The draft resolution was negotiated for weeks, said Guyana’s ambassador, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett. She said the Council needed to respond to concerns “over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza.”

The Council, where the United States is rivaled by Russia and China, has struggled to speak in one voice and play an effective role in mediating the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Russia and China vetoed an American resolution in March that called for “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in Gaza.

Aid groups condemned the U.S. veto on Wednesday.

“It is shameful that the United States has once again used the veto to block consensus on a lifesaving cease-fire, while they continue to approve deadly arms transfers to fuel the violence and humanitarian catastrophe,” said Brenda Moyfa, head of Oxfam’s New York office.

The United States’ support for Israel, and the resulting deadlock over Gaza in the Council, has also generated frustration from some of America’s closest allies, the permanent members Britain and France.

“We deplore today’s failure of the U.N. Security Council,” said France’s ambassador, Nicolas de Rivière. He said the resolution sent the right messages: the immediate cease-fire and the immediate release of hostages. “There is no credible justification to object to that.”

Speaking to reporters, Mr. de Rivière also said French and American officials were discussing the war in Lebanon, and specifically proposals to monitor southern Lebanon during a cease-fire.

Mr. de Rivière said the Lebanese army needed to move troops to southern Lebanon as part of a cease-fire, which would be based on a 2006 Security Council resolution that ended Israel’s last war in Lebanon.

On Wednesday in Beirut, Mr. Hochstein, the U.S. envoy, met for a second straight day with Nabih Berri, the Hezbollah-allied speaker of Lebanon’s Parliament, who has emerged as an important figure in negotiations. During many rounds of diplomacy over the past year, Mr. Hochstein has seldom stayed overnight in Lebanon, so his extended visit raised hopes for progress in talks.

Mr. Hochstein was set to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Thursday, said a spokesman, Omer Dostri.

In a televised address during Mr. Hochstein’s visit, Hezbollah’s new leader, Naim Qassem, said Hezbollah had responded to the U.S. cease-fire proposal. A truce now depended on Israel’s response and Mr. Netanyahu’s “seriousness,” he said.

“Any cease-fire negotiations must adhere to two demands: the total cessation of hostilities by Israel, and the preservation of Lebanese sovereignty,” he said.

If negotiations broke down, he warned, Hezbollah was prepared for a “long war.”

Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, escalated in September and has resulted in a humanitarian crisis, killing more than 3,500 people in Lebanon and displacing almost a quarter of the population. It is now the bloodiest conflict there since Lebanon’s civil war, which lasted from 1975 to 1990.

Reporting was contributed by Aaron Boxerman in Jerusalem, Johnatan Reiss in Tel Aviv, Dayana Iwaza in Beirut, and Matthew Mpoke Bigg in London.

Our Coverage of the Middle East Crisis

• Hostages in Gaza: As he resists pressure to reach a cease-fire that would release the captives, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is now offering a $5 million reward for their freedom.
• Lebanon’s Unlikely National Hero: Middle East Airlines has managed to fly through regional and civil wars since the 1960s. And it is still in the skies today.
• Aid Trucks Looted in Gaza: A large convoy of trucks carrying aid was “violently looted” in the enclave, the main United Nations agency that helps Palestinians said, calling it one of the worst such incidents of the war.
• Oct. 7 Leak Investigation: An Israeli judge revealed more details in a case involving an official in Netanyahu’s office and a military officer suspected of leaking and mishandling classified intelligence documents.
• Traces of Normalcy in Gaza: Most people in Gaza are struggling just to survive Israel’s assault on Hamas, and experts say famine is imminent. Yet a few pockets of ordinary life have bloomed in defiance of the war.