February 21, 2024, 02:37 GMT
Updated 1 hour ago
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Palestinians search for bodies and survivors after Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday
China has sharply criticized the US for vetoing a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Beijing said the move sent the “wrong message” and effectively gave a “green light for further slaughter.”
The White House said the resolution proposed by Algeria would “jeopardize” talks to end the war.
The US has proposed its own temporary ceasefire resolution, which also warned Israel against entering the city of Rafah.
Algeria's resolution was supported by 13 of the 15 members of the UN Security Council – the UK abstained.
Under the council's rules, any resolution vetoed by one of its five permanent members – including the United States – is immediately rejected.
Israel began its operations in Gaza after a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7 that killed about 1,200 people and took more than 240 others hostage.
According to the Palestinian territory's Hamas-run Ministry of Health, more than 29,000 people have died in Israel's military operation in Gaza.
More than a million displaced Palestinians – about half of Gaza's population – are crowded into Rafah after being forced to seek shelter there. Before the war, only 250,000 people lived in the southern city, which borders Egypt.
Many of the displaced live in makeshift shelters or tents in squalid conditions and have little access to clean drinking water or food.
The US decision to block the Algeria resolution was met with widespread condemnation.
China's U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun said the claim that the request would affect diplomatic negotiations was “completely baseless.”
“Given the situation on the ground, continued passive avoidance of an immediate ceasefire is nothing other than giving the green light to further slaughter,” he said.
“The expansion of the conflict is destabilizing the entire Middle East region and leading to an increasing risk of a major war,” he added.
“Only by extinguishing the flames of war in Gaza can we prevent the fires of hell from engulfing the entire region.”
Algeria's top UN diplomat said that “unfortunately the Security Council has failed again.”
“Examine your conscience, how will history judge you,” Amar Bendjama added.
Some US allies were also critical of the decision to reject Algeria's proposed resolution. France's UN envoy Nicolas de Rivière expressed regret that the resolution had not been adopted “given the catastrophic situation on the ground”.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Washington's UN ambassador, said it was not the right time to call for an immediate ceasefire while negotiations between Hamas and Israel were still ongoing.
Her British counterpart Barbara Woodward said the plan could “actually make a ceasefire less likely” by jeopardizing talks.
The US-proposed alternative resolution, meanwhile, calls for a temporary ceasefire “as soon as possible” and on the condition that all hostages are released, and urges lifting barriers to the delivery of aid to Gaza.
The White House previously avoided the word “ceasefire” during UN votes on the war. It is unclear if and when the Security Council will vote on the proposal.
The draft also states that a major ground offensive in Rafah would lead to more harm to civilians and their further displacement, possibly to neighboring countries – a reference to Egypt.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday he was “committed to continuing the war until we achieve all its objectives” and no amount of pressure could change that.
The UN has warned that a planned Israeli offensive in the city could lead to a “massacre”. The Israeli military has previously insisted it only targets Hamas militants.
Benny Gantz, a member of Israel's war cabinet, said the ground attack would be launched if Hamas did not release all hostages by March 10.