“A politicized decision.” A Russian-Chinese veto against a draft American resolution linking the Gaza truce to detainees

Russia and China used their veto power against a US draft resolution in the UN Security Council linking the ceasefire in Gaza to the release of Israeli detainees. The Russian delegate considered the decision "excessively politicized" and included a green light for Israel to carry out a military operation in Rafah.

On Friday, Russia and China thwarted a US draft resolution in the UN Security Council linking the ceasefire in Gaza to the release of Israeli detainees.

The United Nations stated, in a post on the

The draft resolution received the support of 11 members of the Council, 3 opposed it, and one member abstained from voting, according to the same source.

US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said before the Security Council: “The vast majority of this Council supported the draft resolution, but unfortunately Russia and China decided to use their veto power.”

She stated before the vote that the Council not adopting the resolution would be a “historic mistake.”

For his part, Vasily Nebenzia, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, called on Security Council member states to vote against the resolution.

He stated that the decision is "excessively politicized" and actually includes giving the green light to Israel to carry out a military operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, as more than half of the Gaza Strip's 2.3 million people are taking shelter in temporary tents to escape the Israeli attack in northern Gaza.

“This will free Israel's hands and will result in the entire population throughout Gaza having to face destruction, devastation or expulsion,” Nebenzia said at the meeting.

He added that a number of non-members of the Security Council had drafted an alternative resolution, which he described as a balanced document and said that there was no justification for members not to support that resolution.

Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli occupation forces have been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip with American support, leaving tens of thousands of civilian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, a humanitarian catastrophe and massive destruction of infrastructure, which led to Tel Aviv appearing before the International Court of Justice on charges of “genocide.” ".

As a result of the war and Israeli restrictions, the residents of Gaza, especially the Gaza and North governorates, are on the verge of famine, amid a severe scarcity of food, water, medicine and fuel supplies, which has claimed the lives of children and the elderly, according to Palestinian and UN data.