Reuters. Russia failed for a second time to the get minimum amount of support needed for a UN Security Council resolution on the Israel-Gaza conflict, deepening the Council’s deadlock over any unified response to address the crisis.
Earlier at the United Nations, Russia and China vetoed a U.S.-drafted Security Council resolution calling for pauses in hostilities to allow for food, water and medicine to be delivered to Palestinian civilians.
Russia's rival proposal advocated a wider ceasefire, but failed to win the minimum number of votes. Israel has resisted both, arguing that Hamas would only take advantage and create new threats to Gaza civilians.
The similarly worded resolutions would have called for a “humanitarian ceasefire” or “humanitarian pause” to enable safe delivery of aid for desperate civilians. Both drafts condemned the attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians of October 7 and urged action to address the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
Key differences in the text included a specific mention in the US-backed proposal of States’ inherent right to self-defence, and a call in the Russian-led one for the immediate cancellation by Israeli forces of the evacuation order for civilians to head into southern Gaza.
