:format(jpeg):focal(2033x812:2043x802)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gfrmedia/E5PS2QO4GJBZDNIQUROVXNN3MA.jpg "US votes against UN resolution condemning Hamas attacks on Israel")
United Nations – USA voted on Wednesday in response to a resolution of the United Nations Organization (UN) that condemned the attacks of Hamas to Israel and all violence against civilians, and called for help to the Palestinians in Gaza.
The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 12 in favor, the United States against and two abstentions.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said after the vote that the president Joe Biden is in the region carrying out diplomatic activities “and we need that diplomacy to bear fruit.” He criticized the resolution because it did not mention Israel’s right to defend itself.
Before voting on the resolution, sponsored by Brazil, council members rejected two Russian amendments, one calling for a “humanitarian ceasefire” and another condemning indiscriminate attacks on civilians and “civilian objects” in Gaza, which They would include schools and hospitals.
Brazil holds the presidency of the Security Council this month. Its U.N. mission said an emergency meeting would be held after the vote to discuss Tuesday’s explosion and fire at a Gaza City hospital packed with sick people, relatives and Palestinians seeking shelter. The Hamas-run Health Ministry said at least 500 people were killed.
Israel and the Palestinians accused each other of being responsible for the massacre. Hamas said it was the result of an Israeli airstrike. Israel blamed a missile launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militia that followed a rampant trajectory. Islamic Jihad denied involvement.
Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia called for the emergency session, in which U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo and U.N. Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland will brief council members.
The Security Council, always divided, is even more polarized since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. To pass a resolution, votes are required from at least 15 members and no votes against from the five permanent members, the United States, Russia, China, Great Britain and France.
Meanwhile, diplomacy is working frantically to prevent the conflict between Israel and Hamas from spilling over. Biden met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to try to prevent the war from spreading to the region and open corridors for the delivery of humanitarian aid to the inhabitants of Gaza.
After the hospital explosion, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas walked out of a meeting with Biden, Egyptian President Abdel Fatha el-Sisi and King Abdullah II of Jordan, and the Jordanians canceled the meeting.
He Arab Group at the UN, of 22 members, expressed its “outrage” for the massacre in the hospital and called for an immediate ceasefire to avoid new Palestinian casualties, the opening of a humanitarian corridor and prevent the forced evacuation of the population of the territory.
Egyptian ambassador to the UN, Osama Mahmoud, told reporters that a summit of regional leaders and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will take place on Saturday in Cairo, as planned. The five permanent members of the Security Council are also invited, he added.
The topics of the meeting will be the humanitarian crisis caused by the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, how to achieve a ceasefire and whether there is a “serious attempt to have a political horizon” that would allow addressing the obstacles to a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Palestinians.
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