Source: Mondoweiss.net
The U.S. was the lone Security Council member to vote against a resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, casting its veto despite nearly 100 states sponsoring the proposal. The American veto provoked outcry from humanitarian and advocacy groups, with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) calling it “a vote against humanity.”
Casualties
- 17,487 killed*, including 7,729+ children, and 46,480 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
- At least 273 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7.
*This figure was given by the Gaza Ministry of Health on December 8. However, due to breakdowns in communication networks within the Gaza Strip (particularly in northern Gaza) and the high number of people trapped under rubble, the Gaza Ministry of Health has been unable to regularly and accurately update its tolls since mid-November. Some rights groups put the death toll number closer to or above 20,000.
Key Developments
- The U.S. is the lone Security Council member to vote against a resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, casting its veto despite nearly 100 states sponsoring the proposal.
- U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who invoked Article 99 this week saying that the war was threatening international peace and security, said the situation had reached a “breaking point” and that Palestinian civilians were treated as “human pinballs” in Gaza forced to evacuate from one small area to the next with no aid.
- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says the U.S. vote renders Washington complicit in Israel’s war crimes and calls for an international conference to achieve a political resolution.
- Doctors Without Borders calls the U.S. veto a “vote against humanity,” while major humanitarian organizations urge the Security Council to reconvene until a ceasefire is passed.
- Dozens of U.N. experts warn that the United Nations “raison d’être” is at stake, calling on Member States to act collectively to “save Gaza from total destruction.”
- However, Joe Biden is reportedly asking Congress to sell tens of thousands of tank shells to Israel, with Israeli military officials estimating the “high-intensity phase” of the war could last until late January.
- Israel continues to pummel the Gaza Strip, killing hundreds in the span of 24 hours.
- The Gaza Ministry of Health says less than 1 percent of Gaza’s wounded have been evacuated for treatment abroad, and that many are dying from lack of access to medical care.
- The Palestinian Olympic committee says Israel has killed 64 athletes since October 7.
- The International Criminal Court is accused of ‘alarming’ bias in favor of Israel, Al Jazeera reports.
- Israeli forces kill at least two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in the span of 24 hours, and wound more during raids across the Palestinian territory.
- Israeli strike kills three Hezbollah members in Syria, as it also launches intense strikes on southern Lebanese towns.
- Hundreds gather in the Spanish town of Guernica to protest Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, drawing parallels to the city’s own bombardment by the Nazis in 1937, captured for posterity by Pablo Picasso.
- Today marks the 36th anniversary of the beginning of the First Intifada, on December 9, 1987.
U.S. vetoes Security Council resolution for Gaza ceasefire: ‘a vote against humanity’
To few people’s surprise, but amid widespread consternation, the United States chose on Friday to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The resolution was brought forward by the United Arab Emirates and co-signed by 97 U.N. member states, after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made the rare move to invoke Article 99 of the U.N. Charter, which allows the highest representative of the international body to bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter that “threatens the maintenance of international peace and security.”
The U.S., Israel’s foremost ally and financial backer, was the lone country in the 15-member Security Council to vote against the resolution, with the United Kingdom choosing to abstain….