The U.S. mission to the United Nations vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution, which the body’s 10 non-permanent members introduced and which calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“U.S. opposition to this resolution should come as no surprise,” Dorothy Shea, the acting U.S. envoy, told the council on Wednesday. “It is unacceptable for what it does say. It is unacceptable for what it does not say, and it is unacceptable for the manner in which it has been advanced.”
“The United States has been clear,” she added. “We would not support any measure that fails to condemn Hamas and does not call for Hamas to disarm and leave Gaza.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the resolution “would’ve only served to advance the interests of Hamas terrorists, while undermining diplomatic efforts.”
Rubio echoed Shea’s earlier remarks, stating that any U.N. measure “should clearly condemn Hamas and call for them to disarm and leave Gaza,” and adding that “the U.S. will continue to stand with Israel.”
Washington cast the lone vote against the resolution, with the other 14 members of the council voting in favor. As a permanent member of the council, Washington wields veto power over any resolutions. China, France, Russia and the United Kingdom are the other four permanent members.
The non-permanent members, who advanced the resolution, are Algeria, Denmark, Greece, Guyana, Pakistan, Panama, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia and Somalia.
“In recent months, Hamas has rejected numerous ceasefire proposals, including one over the weekend that would provide a pathway to end this conflict and release the remaining 58 hostages,” Shea told the council. “We cannot allow the Security Council to reward Hamas’s intransigence.”
She added that the terrorist group is the one that “continues to threaten Israelis and puts Palestinian civilians in Gaza in harm’s way every day, using them as human shields.” Hamas has “brutally suppressed those brave enough to challenge its despotic rule,” she said.
“It is inexplicable that many members of this council still refuse to acknowledge that Hamas could end this conflict tomorrow by surrendering and laying down its arms,” she said. “It is unconscionable that the United Nations still has not labeled and sanctioned Hamas as a terrorist organization.
“In addition to refusing, once again, to condemn Hamas for the cowardly and evil acts that set this brutal conflict into motion, this resolution contains other serious defects,” she added.
Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, stated that “the resolution voted on was a gift to Hamas and risked emboldening terrorism.
“You chose appeasement and submission. You chose a road that does not lead to peace. Only to more terror,” he told the members of the council, with the exception of Washington.
“Instead of confronting the truth, some on this council attempted to bury it. Instead of applying pressure where it belongs—on Hamas—you have applied it on the country actively working to bring its people home,” Danon said.
The vote was “not diplomacy,” he said. “That is surrender, and it sends a clear message to Hamas: Reject every deal, and the international community will still reward you. Hold innocent civilians hostage, and the U.N. will still give you legitimacy. Continue the war, and the pressure will still fall on Israel, not on the terrorists who started this war.”
Danon thanked Washington for its veto and “for standing on the right side, for standing on the side of truth, justice and moral clarity” and “for refusing to abandon the hostages and for refusing to legitimize the lies of this resolution.”
The U.S. envoy told the council that Washington urges the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations to support the independent Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which seeks to deliver aid to Gazans without Hamas stealing it.
“We need to be perfectly clear. Performative actions in this council—designed to draw a veto as evidenced by the process of formulating this resolution, wherein there was no true negotiation—are harmful at a time when there is delicate diplomacy going on in the region to reach a ceasefire,” Shea said.
“Further, engaging in this performative process, at a time when serious questions are being asked about the utility of the United Nations, its funding and use of resources, is shameful,” she added. “This council should not be used in this way. This council must hold itself to a higher standard.”
The United Kingdom mission to the global body stated that it voted in favor of the resolution “because Israel’s block on aid into Gaza needs to end.
“Israel’s new system is not working. Palestinians have been killed as they try to reach the very few aid sites that Israel has permitted,” it stated. “It is inhumane. Israel must let the United Nations save lives.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar thanked U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration for “standing shoulder to shoulder” with the Jewish state in rejecting the resolution, arguing that it emboldens the Hamas terrorist group and undermines American attempts to secure a hostage agreement.
Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, applauded the veto. “Today’s proposed U.N. Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire could not have been more detached from reality,” he stated. “On Oct. 7, Hamas, with backing from Iran, launched a barbaric terrorist assault on Israel. It still holds 58 hostages and has made clear it would strike again.
“This is a group that not only targets civilians but also hijacks humanitarian aid, depriving the people of Gaza of vital supplies. Yet time and again, Security Council members turn a blind eye,” Lauder stated. “That is why the United States was forced to exercise its veto once more, and we are grateful for the Trump administration’s steadfast support of Israel as U.N. bodies continue to be weaponized against the world’s only Jewish state.”
“Recent weeks have shown the danger of ignoring the facts. Doing so doesn’t just endanger Israel,” he added. “It places Jewish communities everywhere at risk. It’s time the international community recognized the threat posed by Hamas, Iran and their proxies—not only to Israel but to global stability.”