UN Security Council Rejects Russia’s Resolution on Gaza That Fails to Mention Hamas 

Smoke rises from the northern part of the Gaza Strip as a result of an Israeli airstrike, 17 October 2023. (EPA)
Smoke rises from the northern part of the Gaza Strip as a result of an Israeli airstrike, 17 October 2023. (EPA)
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UN Security Council Rejects Russia’s Resolution on Gaza That Fails to Mention Hamas 

Smoke rises from the northern part of the Gaza Strip as a result of an Israeli airstrike, 17 October 2023. (EPA)
Smoke rises from the northern part of the Gaza Strip as a result of an Israeli airstrike, 17 October 2023. (EPA)

The UN Security Council rejected a Russian resolution Monday night that condemned violence and terrorism against civilians but made no mention of Hamas, whose surprise attack that killed 1,300 Israelis was the worst Jewish massacre since the World War II Nazi Holocaust.

Only four countries joined Russia in voting for the resolution — China, United Arab Emirates, Mozambique and Gabon. Four countries voted against it — the United States, Britain, France and Japan. The other six countries abstained. Adoption needs a minimum of nine “yes” votes in the 15-member council.

The UN’s most powerful body, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security, has failed to respond to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and to Israel response with retaliatory airstrikes that have killed 2,750 and an order to Gazans in the north to head south to avoid an expected ground war.

Britain’s UN ambassador, Barbara Woodward, said it would be “unconscionable for this council to ignore the largest terror attack in Israel’s history.”

With the Russian resolution rejected, she said negotiations would continue on a rival Brazilian resolution. It also “firmly condemns all violence and hostilities against civilians and all acts of terrorism.” But it “unequivocally rejects and condemns the heinous terrorist attacks by Hamas” that started Oct. 7.

It was unclear if the council would vote on the Brazilian resolution Monday night.

Before the vote on Russia’s draft, Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia urged support for the resolution, saying it responds to the “unprecedented exacerbation of the current crisis,” with the number of people killed and injured “growing every hour.” He again condemned the deaths of civilians in Israel and Gaza.

After the vote, Nebenzia said that “the council once again has found itself a hostage to the selfish intentions of the Western bloc of countries” and failed to send a collective message aimed at de-escalating “the most serious explosion of violence over the past decades.”

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield countered that Hamas, whose purpose is to destroy Israel and kill Jews, unleashed terror on Israel but the Russian resolution didn’t mention the militant group, which controls Gaza.

“By failing to condemn Hamas, Russia is giving cover to a terrorist group that brutalizes innocent civilians,” she said. “Hamas’ actions have led to the dire humanitarian crisis facing the people of Gaza.”

Thomas-Greenfield said civilians shouldn’t have to suffer for “Hamas’ atrocities” and she urged the council and the international community to help address Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, condemn Hamas and reaffirm Israel’s right to self-defense.

“The bottom line is this: You cannot claim to stand with the Palestinians and their legitimate aspirations if you do not stand squarely against Hamas,” she said.

The Russian draft resolution would have called for “an immediate, durable and fully respected humanitarian ceasefire” and strongly condemned “all violence and hostilities directed against civilians and all acts of terrorism,” with no mention of Hamas.

The Brazilian draft resolution calls for “humanitarian pauses” in addition to condemning Hamas and all violence and terrorist acts against civilians.

Apparently expecting the defeat of its resolution, Russia earlier Monday proposed two amendments to the Brazilian draft resolution to be voted on separately after the vote on the Russian resolution but before the entire Brazilian resolution would be put to a vote.

One amendment would add a call “for an immediate, durable and fully respected humanitarian ceasefire.”

The second proposed amendment “also unequivocally condemns indiscriminate attacks against civilians as well as against civilian objects in the Gaza Strip depriving civilian population of means indispensable for their survival, in violation of international law.”

Nebenzia told reporters after the vote that the amendments would provide “balance” to the Brazilian draft resolution.

Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan reminded the council that the United Nations was founded on the ashes of World War II, “the genocide of the Jewish people — and just over a week ago, we witnessed yet another attempt at Jewish genocide – the Nazi Hamas massacre of babies, mothers, fathers and the elderly.”

He said Hamas won’t stop until Israel is obliterated and so “Israel must obliterate Hamas first” for self-preservation.

“So let me be clear. Israel is on a rescue mission, a rescue mission to save our hostages, a rescue mission to save our future and to save the people of Gaza from their savage tyrants,” Erdan said.

The Palestinian UN ambassador, Riyad Mansour, called Israel’s assault on Gaza a “massacre against innocent civilians,” who comprise the vast majority of Palestinians killed, including more than 1,000 children.

“No one should forget that these are human lives, that Palestinian lives matter, too,” he said. “And no one should entertain the illusion that killing more Palestinians will ever make Israelis more secure.”

He said three things are needed: to halt the Israeli attack on Palestinians, allow unimpeded humanitarian access throughout Gaza, and “stop the forced transfer of our people.” He urged the council to take action now, “so no Palestinians or no Israelis are killed anymore."



34 Palestinians Killed in New Shootings Near Food Distribution Centers, Medics Say

Smoke rises following Israeli strikes, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 16, 2025. (Reuters)
Smoke rises following Israeli strikes, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 16, 2025. (Reuters)
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34 Palestinians Killed in New Shootings Near Food Distribution Centers, Medics Say

Smoke rises following Israeli strikes, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 16, 2025. (Reuters)
Smoke rises following Israeli strikes, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 16, 2025. (Reuters)

At least 34 Palestinians were killed Monday in new shootings on the roads leading to Israeli- and US-supported food distribution centers in the Gaza Strip, the local Health Ministry said. 

The toll was the deadliest yet in the near-daily shootings that have taken place as thousands of Palestinians move through Israeli military-controlled areas to reach the food centers.  

As on previous days, witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire in an attempt to control crowds.  

The ministry says several hundred people have been killed and hundreds more wounded in such shootings since the centers, run by the private contractor Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, opened three weeks ago. 

There was no immediate comment by the Israeli military. It has said in previous instances that troops fired warning shots at what it calls suspects approaching their positions. 

Gaza's Health Ministry said 33 Palestinians were killed trying to reach the GHF center near the southern city of Rafah and another on route to a GHF hub in central Gaza. It said four other people were killed elsewhere. 

Witnesses describe crowds under fire Israeli troops started firing as thousands of Palestinians massed around 4 a.m. at the Flag Roundabout before the scheduled opening time of the Rafah food center, according to Heba Jouda and Mohamed Abed, two Palestinians who were in the crowd. 

People fell to the ground, trying to take cover, they said. "Fire was coming from everywhere," said Jouda, who has repeatedly made the journey to get food for her family over the past week. "It’s getting worse day by day," she said. 

The Red Cross field hospital nearby received some 200 injured Monday, the highest single mass casualty event, the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement. Only a day earlier, it said, around 170 were brought to the facility, most of them wounded by gunshots while trying to reach the GHF center. The Health Ministry toll made it the deadliest day around the food sites since June 2, when 31 people were killed. 

The Flag Roundabout, hundreds of meters (yards) from the GHF center, has been a repeated scene of shootings. It is on the route designated by the Israeli military for people to take to reach the center. 

Palestinians over the past weeks have said Israeli troops open fire to prevent people from moving past a certain point on the road before the scheduled opening of the center or because people leave the road. 

A GHF spokesperson told The Associated Press on Sunday that "none of the incidents to date have occurred at our sites or during operating hours." It said the incidents have involved aid-seekers who were moving "during prohibited times ... or trying to take a short cut." It said it was trying to improve safety measures, including by recently moving the opening times from nighttime to daylight hours. 

A new aid distribution system Israel and the United States say the new GHF system is needed to prevent Hamas from siphoning off aid. GHF says there has been no violence in or around the sites themselves. 

UN agencies and major aid groups, which have delivered humanitarian aid across Gaza since the start of the 20-month Israel-Hamas war, have rejected the new system, saying it can’t meet the territory’s needs and allows Israel to use aid as a weapon. They deny there is widespread theft of aid by Hamas. 

Palestinian health officials say scores of people have been killed and hundreds wounded since the sites opened last month. Experts have warned that Israel’s ongoing military campaign and restrictions on the entry of aid have put Gaza, which is home to some 2 million Palestinians, at risk of famine. 

Meanwhile, a new UN food crisis report released on Monday said the resumption of military operations in Gaza was escalating the food crisis in Gaza "to unprecedented levels."    

The Hunger Hotspots report by the World Food Program and Food and Agricultural Organization said that no adequate humanitarian aid or commercial supplies have reached the Gaza Strip since the end of the eight-week ceasefire, the longest interruption since the start of the conflict.     

According to the latest projections, released in May, the whole of Gaza's 2.1 million people are at risk of falling into acute food insecurity by September.   

The UN human rights chief said Israel’s warfare in Gaza is inflicting "horrifying, unconscionable suffering" on Palestinians and urged government leaders to exert pressure on Israel’s government and the Hamas movement to end it.  

"Israel’s means and methods of warfare are inflicting horrifying, unconscionable suffering on Palestinians in Gaza," Volker Türk told the 47-member Human Rights Council in an address that raised concerns about the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel and the fallout from sweeping US tariffs among other topics.   

Israeli authorities have regularly accused the council of anti-Israel bias, and the Trump administration has kept the United States out of its proceedings. 

Israel’s military campaign since October 2023 has killed over 55,300 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It says women and children make up most of the dead but doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed more than 20,000 fighters, without providing evidence. 

Hamas started the latest war in Gaza with its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, with gunmen killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking another 251 hostage. The fighters still hold 53 hostages, fewer than half of them alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.