US blocks UN resolution for 'humanitarian pause' in Gaza

The United States has vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for "humanitarian pauses" to deliver aid to millions in crisis in Gaza.

It was the only country to vote against this, while Russia and the United Kingdom abstained.

Those who voted in favour were Albania, Brazil, China, Ecuador, France, Gabon, Ghana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.

This comes as human rights agencies and UN workers on the ground report that Gaza is running out of water, food and medicine for more than a million civilians.

Israel said it has dropped more than 6,000 bombs on Gaza since the war erupted after a Hamas attack in Israel on Oct 7 killed 1,400 people.

Palestinian authorities estimated the death toll from Israeli airstrikes and raids there since Oct 7 at about 3,478 people while more than 12,000 were injured, Turkish news agency Andalou Agency reported.

Of this, 70 percent are believed to be children.

Biden: Israel didn't bomb hospital

On Tuesday, there was a strike on a Christian-run hospital in Gaza, Al Ahli, which the Gaza authorities estimated had killed about 500 people, including displaced families sheltering there.

Israel blames a misfired rocket by militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad for the strike, while the Palestinian authorities said it was an Israeli airstrike.

Meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv yesterday, US President Joe Biden seemingly absolved Israel of the blame.

“Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” Biden told Netanyahu, the Associated Press reported.

In Washington, the White House National Security Council said the US assessment was based on analysis of overhead imagery, intercepts and open source information, Reuters reported.

Arab leaders cancelled plans to meet Biden after the hospital strike.

Earlier, Biden claimed he saw pictures of babies allegedly decapitated by Hamas, but the White House later clarified the president did not see any such images and was likely referring to news reports of such.

An Israeli Defence Force spokesperson, however, told US broadcaster NBC that he could not confirm if those news reports were true.

Pledge of aid to Gaza

Despite blocking a UN resolution for a "humanitarian pause" which could deliver aid to Gaza, Biden said the US would provide US$100 million (RM476 million) in humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

He also said the US will do everything it can to protect Israel.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu said Israel will not stop aid entering Gaza from Egypt but supplies will not be allowed to reach Palestinian group Hamas, Reuters reported.

Egypt, the only other country which shares a border with Gaza, has been stockpiling aid on its side of the border but is unable to cross because of Israeli airstrikes, the newswire reported.

The UN has warned of a "humanitarian catastrophe", as Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza, cutting off electricity supply and flows of food and fuel to 2.3 million people living in the narrow strip of land.

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