US vetoes UN resolution on Gaza ceasefire over lack of link to hostage release

The United States has vetoed a UN resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in the war in Gaza on Wednesday because it is not linked to an immediate release of hostages taken captive by Hamas in Israel in October 2023.

The UN Security Council voted 14-1 in favour of the resolution sponsored by the 10 elected members on the 15-member council, but it was not adopted because of the US veto.

The resolution that was put to a vote “demands an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire to be respected by all parties, and further reiterates its demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages”.

The resolution had been sponsored by the 10 elected members on the 15-member council. Unlike the five permanent members – the US, Russia, China, the UK and France – the elected members have no veto power.

The US-sponsored resolution welcomed a ceasefire proposal announced by US President Joe Biden that the US said Israel had accepted. It called on the militant Palestinian group Hamas to accept the three-phase plan – but the war continues.

Elsewhere, Israeli officials on Wednesday demanded the freedom to strike Lebanon’s Hezbollah as part of any ceasefire deal there, raising a potential complication as a top US envoy was in the region attempting to clinch an agreement.

The development came as an airstrike hit the historic Syrian town of Palmyra, killing 36 people, according to Syrian state-run media, which blamed the attack on Israel. The Israeli military declined to comment.

Israeli defence minister Israel Katz and foreign minister Gideon Saar each said Israel sought to reserve the right to respond to any violations by Hezbollah under an emerging proposal, which would push the militant group’s fighters and Israeli ground forces out of a UN buffer zone in southern Lebanon.

“In any agreement we will reach, we will have to maintain our freedom to act if there will be violations,” Mr Saar told dozens of foreign ambassadors in Jerusalem.

“We will have to be able to act in time, before the problem will grow.”

Mr Katz, in a meeting with intelligence corps officers, said “the condition for any political settlement in Lebanon” was the right for the Israeli military “to act and protect the citizens of Israel from Hezbollah”.

Amos Hochstein, the Biden administration’s lead on Israel and Lebanon, has been working in recent days to push the sides toward agreement. He has been meeting this week with officials in Lebanon and said on Wednesday he would travel to Israel in an attempt to “try to bring this to a close if we can”.

On Tuesday, Mr Hochstein said an agreement to end the Israel-Hezbollah war is “within our grasp”.