Russia, China reject U.S.-led Gaza ceasefire resolution at the UN

The United Nations Security Council on Friday failed to pass a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as part of a hostage deal after Russia and China voted against the measure proposed by the United States.

The council voted on a U.S.-sponsored resolution declaring “the imperative of an immediate and sustained ceasefire” in the Israel-Hamas war.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the UN, urged council members to approve the resolution.

“We want to see an immediate and sustained ceasefire as part of a deal that leads to the release of all hostages being held by Hamas and other groups, and that allows much more life-saving humanitarian aid to get into Gaza,” she said.

The draft resolution was part of an apparent American toughening toward its ally. Earlier in the war, the U.S. was averse to the word ceasefire and vetoed measures that included calls for an immediate ceasefire.

Vasily Nebenzya, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, immediately seized on what he said was hypocrisy and a “sluggish thought process” from the Americans, “who four times, in cold blood, cast a veto in this chamber.”

Nebenzya’s deputy, Dmitry Polyansky, said a day earlier that Moscow would not be satisfied “with anything that doesn’t call for an immediate ceasefire. He questioned the wording of the draft.

“What’s an imperative? I have an imperative to give you $100, but it’s only an imperative, not $100.”

Eleven countries voted in favour of the resolution while Algeria abstained. Canada is not currently a member of the security council.

Thomas-Greenfield called the rejection “petty,” stressing that the U.S. had consulted with all council members on the resolution.

“They would rather see us fail than the council succeed,” she said of permanent council members China and Russia.

Israel committed to Rafah operation

As diplomats engaged in New York, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday in a meeting that lasted about 40 minutes. Prior to the meeting, Blinken said he would address the growing gap between the two countries in his one-on-one conversation.

Netanyahu said in a statement he had told Blinken that there was no way to defeat Hamas without launching a ground offensive on Rafah, a city on the southern edge of Gaza where more than half the population is now sheltering in makeshift accommodation.

“And I told him that I hope we will do it with the support of the U.S., but if we have to — we will do it alone,” Netanyahu said.

Blinken, who also met with the Israeli war cabinet, had said he would push Netanyahu to take urgent steps to allow more aid into the densely populated enclave, where mass death from famine is imminent.

So little food has been allowed into Gaza that up to 60 per cent of children under five are now malnourished, compared with fewer than one per cent before the war began, World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday.

Israeli Col. Moshe Tetro, head of Israel’s Co-ordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza, said the military does not believe there is a food shortage in the enclave.

“As much as we know, by our analysis, there is no starvation in Gaza. There is a sufficient amount of food entering Gaza every day,” he told reporters.

Palestinian militants led by Hamas killed some 1,200 people including several Canadians in the surprise Oct. 7 attack. The Israeli government tallies also indicate some 130 of 250 hostages remain in Gaza since October, but that at least 31 have been confirmed as dead. Over 100 people were repatriated in exchanges for Palestinian prisoners late last year.

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The Health Ministry in Gaza on Thursday raised the territory’s death toll in Israel’s war response since Oct. 7 to 31,998 Palestinians. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.

Hundreds detained in hospital raid

Meanwhile, Israeli forces have detained hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters including a number of security officials and military commanders during its extended raid into Gaza’s main hospital, the military’s main spokesperson said.

Israeli troops entered the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in the early hours of Monday morning and have been combing through the sprawling complex, which the military says is connected to a tunnel network used as a base for Palestinian fighters.

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It says troops have killed hundreds of fighters and detained over 500 suspects, including 358 members of the Islamist militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the largest number since the beginning of the war nearly six months ago.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, Israel’s main military spokesperson, said special forces units had severely damaged Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Among the detainees were three senior Islamic Jihad military commanders and two Hamas officials responsible for operations in the occupied West Bank as well as other Hamas internal security officials.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas or Islamic Jihad.

Israel’s plans for the detainees were not immediately clear.

Al-Shifa, the Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital before the war, is now one of the few health-care facilities even partially operational in the north of the territory, and had also been housing displaced civilians.

Reuters has been unable to access the hospital and verify the accounts.

Hospitals are protected buildings under international humanitarian law. But allegations that Al-Shifa is also being used for military purposes complicated the situation because that would also breach international law, UN officials have said.