Published March 1, 2024
The lone veto which blocked it was from the United States, in a UNSC vote that was 14 to 1. The US last month was also the lone veto in the body calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
The White House had in the immediate aftermath of yesterday’s early morning deadly incident called it “tremendously alarming” and said it is examining the conflicting accounts of what happened.
“This latest event needs to be thoroughly investigated,” White House spokesperson Olivia Dalton has said. “This event underscores the need for… expanded humanitarian aid to make its way into Gaza.”
The Palestinian side says Israeli forces shot indiscriminately into large crowds of civilians seeking aid, after some 30 trucks loaded with food and supplies parked in a central Gaza City area. However, Israel’s account is that there was a crowd crush and stampede, but further admits that troops fired on a crowd when it surged toward a checkpoint.
Israel says the vast majority of the deaths were not the result of IDF soldiers firing, and there are claims that the Israelis only sought to fire at civilians’ legs.
US deputy ambassador Robert Wood has said of UN efforts to produce a statement, “The parties are working on some language to see if we can get to a statement.”
“The problem is that we don’t have all the facts here,” he said, adding that he wanted the wording to reflect “the necessary due diligence with regards to culpability.”
Hamas released a statement in the aftermath saying this mass killing calls into question the future of ceasefire talks. “The negotiations conducted by the movement’s leadership are not an open process at the expense of the blood of our people,” the statement said as reported by Reuters.
On Tuesday President Biden raised eyebrows in hastily and seemingly prematurely declaring his hope that a truce deal between Hamas and Israel would be achieved by Monday. But now this is even less likely, though that timetable was acknowledged as unrealistic by all parties in response. On Thursday the president walked back the statement.
This latest US veto at the UN Security Council will be held up internationally as essentially another example of “the US and Israel against the world.”
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SOURCE: www.zerohedge.com
RELATED: US blocks Security Council motion blaming Israel for deadly Gaza aid convoy incident
Palestinian envoy says he implored members to go after ‘those responsible for this massacre’; Washington says facts not yet clear; Israel says most victims died in a stampede
File: The United Nations Security Council meets to discuss the situation in the Middle East at UN headquarters in New York on January 23, 2024. (Charly Triballeau / AFP)
Published March 1, 2024
Amid American opposition, Arab nations failed Thursday overnight to get immediate support for a UN Security Council statement that would have blamed Israeli forces for the more than 100 reported deaths as Palestinians in northern Gaza swarmed an aid convoy.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, told reporters after an emergency closed council meeting on the deaths, that 14 of the 15 council members supported the statement put forward by Algeria, the Arab representative on the body.
Algeria’s draft declaration expressed “deep concern,” and stated that the situation was “due to opening fire by Israel forces.”
The United States did not support the statement and US deputy ambassador Robert Wood told reporters: “The parties are working on some language to see if we can get to a statement.
“The problem is that we don’t have all the facts here,” he said, adding that he wanted the wording to reflect “the necessary due diligence with regards to culpability.”
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SOURCE: www.timesofisrael.com
