Russia and China blocked the UN resolution on the Gaza Strip

On Friday, the UN Security Council discussed the resolution proposed by the United States on the situation in the Gaza Strip. It proposed an immediate cessation of hostilities on both sides of the conflict for approximately six weeks to allow humanitarian organizations to provide assistance to the civilian population of the sector. However, Russia and China used the right of veto and blocked the adoption of the resolution.

The document also contained a demand for the Hamas group, recognized as a terrorist group in the United States and the European Union, to immediately provide access to the Israeli hostages and to meet diplomatic efforts to free them.

The permanent representative of Russia in the Security Council, Vasyl Nebenzia, said that the American draft resolution “determines the urgent need for an immediate and stable ceasefire, but there is no corresponding demand or appeal”, TASS quotes him.

Before voting on this resolution, Nebenzya called the document “excessively politicized” and called on other countries to vote against it. He also said that such a resolution would give the green light to Israel to carry out a military operation in the area of ​​the city of Rafah in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, where more than half of the population of the strip has gathered in refugee camps. Nebenzya called to support the alternative version of the resolution proposed by the non-permanent members of the Security Council.

Before the vote, the US Permanent Representative to the UN Security Council, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said that her country would welcome a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, but for now it is necessary to make diplomatic efforts based on real conditions, such as the current negotiations with Hamas, mediated by Qatar. After China and Russia used the right of veto, she condemned their actions, saying that both countries have not yet done anything significant to resolve the situation, and Russia “throws stones in a glass house” and puts political interests above the interests of progress in resolving the conflict .

She criticized the proposed alternative version of the resolution because, in Thomas-Greenfield’s opinion, it does not sufficiently describe the possibilities for diplomacy in the region, and it may provide Hamas with a loophole to escape from the proposed deal on the release of the hostages.

• Israel is carrying out a full-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip in response to the October 7 attack on the south of Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas, recognized as a terrorist in the United States and the European Union. During the jihadist attack, more than 1,200 people died, more than 200 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage and taken to Gaza. According to the latest data, more than 130 people are still captured.
• According to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 30,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, died as a result of shelling by the Israel Defense Forces. There is no independent confirmation of these data.
• Israel previously announced that it was preparing to conduct a military operation against jihadists in the area of ​​the Rafah border crossing on the border with Egypt. More than one and a half million displaced residents of Gaza are sheltering in this region. Washington claims that carrying out an operation without evacuating people can lead to a humanitarian catastrophe.