The United States on Wednesday vetoed a UN Security Council push to call for a ceasefire in Gaza accusing it to be an attempt to embolden Hamas.
The resolution demanded "an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire" in Israel's war on Gaza along with "the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages."
The wording angered Israel, with a senior US official warning ahead of the vote that the resolution had "the potential only to buoy Hamas, which will have no reason to come to the negotiating table."
Israel's UN ambassador Danny Danon said "the resolution being considered by the Security Council today is nothing short of a betrayal."
"For us, it has to be a linkage between a ceasefire and the release of hostages," said Robert Wood, the deputy US ambassador to the United Nations. "It has been our principle position from the beginning and it still remains."
Palestinian militant group Hamas accused the United States of being "directly responsible" for Israel's "genocidal war" in Gaza.
"Again, the United States demonstrates that it is a direct partner in the aggression against our people, that it is a criminal, kills children and women and destroys civilian life in Gaza, and that it is directly responsible for the genocidal war and ethnic cleansing, just like the occupation (Israel)," Hamas said in a statement.
The resolution, sponsored by the 10 elected members and backed by 14 of the 15-member council also called for a "safe and unhindered entry of humanitarian assistance at scale," including in besieged northern Gaza, and denounced any attempt to starve the Palestinians.
The Palestinian delegation at the United Nations has suggested the text did not go far enough.
"Gaza's fate will haunt the world for generations to come," ambassador Riyad Mansour warned.
He said the only course of action for the Security Council is to call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire under Chapter 7 of the UN charter.
That chapter allows the council to take steps to enforce its resolutions, such as sanctions, but the latest text did not refer to this option.
Algeria’s U.N. Ambassador Amar Bendjama, the Arab representative and an elected member of the council, was sharply critical of the U.S. vote and the council’s failure to take action.
“Today’s message is clear to the Israeli occupying power: First you may continue your genocide. You may continue your collective punishment of the Palestinian people with complete impunity. In this chamber, you enjoy immunity,” he said.
Bendjama called the resolution’s defeat a missed opportunity that will have “devastating consequences for the international order.” But he vowed that the elected members will return soon with an even stronger resolution under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which is militarily enforceable – and they will not stop until the council takes action.
Israel's recent war on Gaza, dubbed by several rights organisations including UN agencies as "genocidal" has so far killed at least 43,985 people including more than 17,000 children and over 11,400 women. Israel has also killed over 184 journalists and at least 1000 healthcare workers.
Almost all of Gaza's 2.4 million people have been displaced by the war, which has caused a humanitarian catastrophe.
The recent war followed a cross-border attack by the Hamas, which killed 1,206 Israelis and took 251 people as hostages. Of this, 97 hostages remain in Gaza, while according to the Israeli military, 34 of them are dead. According to Hamas, they were killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Since the beginning of the war, the Security Council has struggled to speak with one voice, as the United States used its veto power several times, although Russia and China have as well.
"China kept demanding 'stronger language'," said the US official who also claimed that Russia had been "pulling strings" with the countries responsible for pushing the latest resolution.
The few resolutions that the United States did allow to pass by abstaining stopped short of calling for an unconditional and permanent ceasefire.
In March, the council called for a temporary ceasefire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but this appeal was ignored by the warring parties.
And in June, the 15-member body pledged support for a US resolution that laid out a multi-stage ceasefire and hostage release plan that ultimately went nowhere.
"We regret that the Council could have incorporated compromise language the UK put forward to bridge the existing gaps... With that language, This resolution should have been adopted," Wood, the US envoy, said following the vote.
Some diplomats have expressed optimism that following Donald Trump's election win on November 5, President Joe Biden might be more flexible in his few remaining weeks in power.
They hoped for a repeat of December 2016 when then-president Barack Obama's second term was finishing and the council passed a resolution calling for a halt to Israeli settlement building in the occupied territories, a first since 1979.
The United States refrained from using its veto then, a break from traditional US support for Israel on the sensitive issue of settlements.
(With inputs from AP)