By Harinder Mahil

It is shameful that a UN Security Council resolution calling for “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza” was vetoed by the US yesterday.

The resolution, co-sponsored by Algeria, Denmark, Greece, Guyana, Pakistan, Panama, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, and Somalia received 14 votes in favour, with the US casting the lone vote against.

As one of the council’s five permanent members, the US holds veto power – a negative vote that automatically blocks any resolution from going forward.

This is the fifth time the US has vetoed a security council ceasefire resolution in order to protect Israeli government. The US vetoed a similar resolution in November 2024 under the Biden administration.

The other 14 members of the Security Council voted in favour of the resolution which also demanded the release of all hostages and lifting humanitarian aid restrictions.

The draft resolution also expressed grave concern over the “catastrophic humanitarian situation” in Gaza – following months of almost total Israeli food blockade, including the risk of famine, highlighted by recent assessment by international food security experts. It reaffirmed the obligation of all parties to comply with international law, including international humanitarian and human rights law.

The failure of the resolution comes as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepens, with UN agencies warning of total collapse of health services and a rising death toll around the privatized US-Israeli led food distribution system which bypasses established agencies.

UN has warned that he Palestinian territory’s entire population is at risk of famine. Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the territory was “the only defined area where you have the entire population at risk of famine. One hundred of the population is at risk of famine,” he said last Friday.

This is taking place when some Israeli politicians are openly saying that their government is committing war crimes in Gaza. In an op-ed piece in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert said. ‘It is undeniable that Israel has been committing acts that could be classified as war crimes.”

“Recent operations in Gaza have nothing to do with legitimate goals.” Olmert wrote. “This is now a private political war. Its immediate result is the transformation of Gaza into a humanitarian disaster area,”

“Never since its establishment has the state of Israel wages such a war … The criminal gang headed by Benjamin Netanyahu has set a precedent without equal in Israel’s history in this area, too,” Olmert added.

The Israeli far right has promoted the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip for decades and the war presents them a chance to make that proposal a reality.

The US can veto whatever resolutions it wants. A day of judgment will soon come not only for Netanyahu but also for his enablers in the west. It is their weapons that Netanyahu has used to kill thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children. History will not spare them.

Harinder Mahil is a human rights activist and is secretary of Dr. Hari Sharma Foundation.