GAZA/BEIRUT: The United States on Wednesday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza, drawing criticism of the Biden administration for once again blocking international action aimed at halting the Zionist war. The 15-member council voted on a resolution put forward by 10 non-permanent members that called for an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” in the 13-month conflict and separately demanded the release of captives.

Only the US voted against, using its veto as a permanent council member to block the resolution. The Zionist campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 44,000 people and displaced nearly all the enclave’s population at least once. Food security experts have warned that famine is imminent among Gaza’s 2.3 million people. Members roundly criticized the US for blocking the resolution put forward by the council’s 10 elected members: Algeria, Ecuador, Guyana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, South Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia and Switzerland.

“It is deeply regretted that due to the use of the veto this council has once again failed to uphold its responsibility to maintain international peace and security,” Malta’s UN Ambassador Vanessa Frazier said after the vote failed, adding that the text of the resolution “was by no means a maximalist one”. “It represented the bare minimum of what is needed to begin to address the desperate situation on the ground,” she said.

France’s ambassador Nicolas de Riviere said the resolution rejected by the US “very firmly” required the release of captives. “France still has two hostages in Gaza, and we deeply regret that the Security Council was not able to formulate this demand,” he said. China’s UN ambassador, Fu Cong, said each time the United States had exercised its veto to protect the Zionist entity, the number of people killed in Gaza had steadily risen. “How many more people have to die before they wake up from their pretend slumber?” he asked. “Insistence on setting a precondition for ceasefire is tantamount to giving the green light to continue the war and condoning the continued killing.”

Hamas accused the US of being “directly responsible” for the Zionist entity’s “genocidal war” in Gaza after the veto. “Again, the United States demonstrates that it is a direct partner in the aggression against our people, that it is a criminal, kills children and women and destroys civilian life in Gaza, and that it is directly responsible for the genocidal war and ethnic cleansing, just like the occupation,” Hamas said in a statement.

Robert Wood, deputy US ambassador to the UN, said Washington had made clear it would only support a resolution that explicitly calls for the immediate release of captives as part of a ceasefire. “A durable end to the war must come with the release of the hostages. These two urgent goals are inextricably linked. This resolution abandoned that necessity, and for that reason, the United States could not support it,” he said.

Wood said the US had sought compromise, but the text of the proposed resolution would have sent a “dangerous message” to Palestinian group Hamas that “there’s no need to come back to the negotiating table”. Some members were more interested in bringing about a US veto than compromising on the resolution, a senior US official said, accusing US adversaries Russia and China of encouraging those members.

Zionist forces killed at least 33 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, including a rescue worker, health officials said, as troops deepened an incursion along the territory’s northern edge, bombarding a hospital and blowing up homes. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, one of three medical facilities barely operational in the besieged northern area, said the hospital “was bombed across all its departments without warning, as we were trying to save an injured person in the intensive care unit” on Tuesday.

There were 85 injured people, including children and women, at the hospital, six in the ICU. Seventeen children had arrived with signs of malnutrition as a result of food shortages. One man died of dehydration a day ago, Abu Safiya added. Residents in the three northern towns - Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun - said Zionist forces had blown up dozens of houses. Palestinians say the Zionist entity appears determined to permanently depopulate the area to create a buffer zone along the northern edge of Gaza.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said Wednesday his group would not accept any truce that violated Lebanese sovereignty, as the Zionist entity demanded freedom to act against the movement in the event of a deal. Qassem also said that a “response must be expected on central Tel Aviv” after deadly strikes on three central Beirut districts in recent days. One of the strikes killed Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif and four members of his media team.

“We have prepared for a long battle,” Qassem said, and Hezbollah will bear “a war of attrition... because we are defending our land and our country”. Hezbollah seeks a “complete and comprehensive end to the aggression” and “the preservation of Lebanon’s sovereignty... the (Zionist) enemy cannot enter (Lebanese territory) whenever it wants”, Qassem said in a pre-recorded speech Wednesday.

“(The Zionist entity) cannot defeat us and cannot impose its conditions on us,” he added, as US envoy Amos Hochstein concluded a two-day visit to Beirut seeking to broker a ceasefire deal between the Zionist entity and Hezbollah. Hochstein had said in Beirut on Tuesday that he saw “a real opportunity” to end the fighting, and on Wednesday said he was heading to the Zionist entity to “try to bring this to a close if we can”.

He met twice in Beirut with parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who has led mediation efforts on behalf of the group. “We have received the (US) paper and we have made some remarks,” Qassem said, adding that the comments “and those of speaker Berri, which are in harmony, have been communicated to the American envoy”.

The Hezbollah chief said a ceasefire depended on “the (Zionist) response and the seriousness” of Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The (Zionist)side expects, through an agreement, to get what it was unable to obtain on the battlefield, and that is not possible,” he said. After the war, he said Hezbollah would “bring an effective contribution to the election of a president”, in a country without a head of state for more than two years. – Agencies