US expected to veto UN Security Council resolution on Israel cease-fire

The U.S. is prepared to veto a resolution at the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday calling for Israel to implement a cease-fire in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip amid efforts to secure a temporary halt in fighting.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas Greenfield is prepared to veto the resolution proposed by Algeria, The Associated Press reported.

The U.S. is working on its own draft resolution with text supporting a temporary cease-fire, a source who requested anonymity told The Hill. It is part of efforts to secure a six-week truce between Israel and Hamas to allow for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and the increase of humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians.

Algeria, however, is seeking to put to a vote Tuesday a resolution at the Security Council calling for Israel to implement a cease-fire in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, raising alarm over an impending military operation in Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians are sheltering. 

The Arab Group in New York, a United Nations grouping of more than two dozen Arab states, said in a statement it supports Algeria’s resolution.

“The resolution presented by Algeria to the Security Council aligns with the priorities of both the Arab group and broader international community – namely a ceasefire, the necessary scale of humanitarian access, and opposition to forced displacement,” the group said. 

“With an imminent attack on Rafah looming, the dire threat to a densely populated area where 1.4 million people are concentrated cannot be overstated, thereby marking a critical juncture with potentially irreversible consequences.”

The U.S. has already vetoed at least two Security Council resolutions that called for Israel to implement a cease-fire, criticizing the text as being divorced from reality and failing to condemn Hamas and call out the atrocities committed during its Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, when an estimated 1,200 people were killed and approximately 240 were kidnapped. 

The U.S. did allow a resolution to proceed in December that called for scaling up humanitarian assistance to Gaza and calling for the immediate release of hostages. 

Despite the expected veto, the U.S. proposing a resolution calling for at least a temporary cease-fire highlights growing frustration between President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Biden administration has issued public warnings to Israel against launching a military operation in Rafah without a credible plan to protect civilians, and increased its criticisms that Israel’s war against Hamas has carried too high of a toll on civilians.

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, said earlier this week that 29,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel’s retaliatory strike on Gaza began.

Israel claims it has killed 10,000 Hamas fighters and injured 10,000 more enough to be taken off the battlefield, estimates that represent about half of Hamas’s fighting force in Gaza, according to experts.

The Israeli government has warned it will launch an offensive on the southern Gazan city of Rafah beginning on the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, March 10, in an effort to pressure Hamas to release more than 100 hostages it still holds in Gaza.

Arab states such as Jordan have called for a cease-fire to be implemented by the beginning of the Ramadan holiday, one of the holiest times for Muslims, warning that conflict during this time would inflame further already high tensions in the Arab world. 

Qatar, meanwhile, has accused Netanyahu of frustrating negotiation efforts with Hamas to secure a temporary cease-fire, accusing the Israeli leader of seeking to prolong the war.