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With Genocide Confirmed and Gaza City a 'Lifeless Wasteland,' US Vetoes Another UN Ceasefire Resolution
“Israel kills every day and nothing happens," said Algeria's UN ambassador. "Israel starves a people and nothing happens. Israel bombs hospitals, schools, shelters, and nothing happens."
Sep 18, 2025
Against a backdrop of Israel's genocidal obliteration of Gaza City and a worsening man-made famine throughout the embattled Palestinian exclave, the United States on Thursday cast its sixth United Nations Security Council veto of a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages held by Hamas.
At its 10,000th meeting, the UN Security Council voted 14-1 with no abstentions in favor of a resolution proposed by the 10 nonpermanent UNSC members demanding "an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire" in Gaza, the "release of all hostages" held by Hamas, and for Israel to "immediately and unconditionally lift all restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid" into the besieged strip.
Morgan Ortagus, President Donald Trump's deputy special envoy to the Middle East, vetoed the proposal, saying that the move "will come as no surprise," as the US has killed five previous UNSC Gaza ceasefire resolutions under both the Biden and Trump administrations, most recently in June.
Ortagus said the resolution failed to condemn Hamas or affirm Israel's right to self-defense and “wrongly legitimizes the false narratives benefiting Hamas, which have sadly found currency in this council."
The US has unconditionally provided Israel with billions of dollars worth of armed aid and diplomatic cover since October 2023 as the key Mideast ally wages a war increasingly viewed as genocidal, including by a commission of independent UN experts this week.
Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said the torpedoed resolution represented the "bare minimum" that must be accomplished, adding that “it is deeply regrettable and painful that it has been blocked.”
“Babies dying of starvation, snipers shooting people in the head, civilians killed en masse, families displaced again and again... humanitarians and journalists targeted... while Israeli officials are openly mocking all of this," Mansour added.
Following the UNSC's latest failure to pass a ceasefire resolution, Algerian Ambassador to the UN Amar Bendjama asked Gazans to "forgive" the body for not only its inability to approve such measures, but also for failing to stop the Gaza famine, in which at least hundreds of Palestinians have died and hundreds of thousands more are starving. Every UNSC members but the US concurred last month that the Gaza famine is a man-made catastrophe.
“Israel kills every day and nothing happens," Bendjama said. "Israel starves a people and nothing happens. Israel bombs hospitals, schools, shelters, and nothing happens. Israel attacks a mediator and steps on diplomacy, and nothing happens. And with every act, every act unpunished, humanity itself is diminished.”
Benjama also asked Gazans to "forgive us" for failing to protect children in the strip, more than 20,000 of whom have been killed by Israeli bombs, bullets, and blockade over the past 713 days. He also noted that upward of 12,000 women, 4,000 elderly, 1,400 doctors and nurses, 500 aid workers, and 250 journalists “have been killed by Israel."
Condemning Thursday's veto, Hamas accused the US of “blatant complicity in the crime of genocide," which Israel is accused of committing in an ongoing International Court of Justice (ICJ) case filed in December 2023 by South Africa and backed by around two dozen nations.
Hamas—which led the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and is believed to be holding 20 hostages left alive out of 251 people kidnapped that day—implored the countries that sponsored the ceasefire resolution to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who along with former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, to accept an agreement to halt hostilities.
Overall, at least 65,141 Palestinians have been killed and over 165,900 others wounded by Israeli forces since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry—whose figures have not only been confirmed by former IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, but deemed a significant undercount by independent researchers. Thousands more Gazans are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the ruins of the flattened strip.
UK Ambassador to the UN Barbara Woodward stessed after Thursday's failed UNSC resolution that "we need a ceasefire more than ever."
“Israel’s reckless expansion of its military operation takes us further away from a deal which could bring the hostages home and end the suffering in Gaza," Woodward said.
Thursday's developments came as Israeli forces continued to lay waste to Gaza City as they push deeper into the city as part of Operation Gideon's Chariots 2, a campaign to conquer, occupy, and ethnically cleanse around 1 million Palestinians from the strip's capital. Israeli leaders have said they are carrying out the operation in accordance with Trump's proposal to empty Gaza of Palestinians and transform it into the "Riviera of the Middle East."
In what some observers said was a bid to prevent the world from witnessing fresh Israeli war crimes in Gaza City, internet and phone lines were cut off in the strip Thursday, although officials said service has since been mostly restored.
Gaza officials said Thursday that at least 50 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces since dawn, including 40 in Gaza City, which Al Jazeera reporter Tareq Abu Azzoum said is being pummeled into "a lifeless wasteland."
Azzoum reported that tens of thousands of Palestinians "are moving to the south on foot or in carts, looking for any place that is relatively safe—but with no guarantee of safety—or at least for shelter."
Israel has repeatedly bombed areas it advised Palestinians were "safe zones," including a September 2 airstrike that massacred 11 people—nine of them children—queued up to collect water in al-Mawasi.
"Most families who have arrived in the south have not found space," Azzoum added. "That’s why we’ve seen people setting up makeshift tents close to the water while others are left stranded in the street, living under the open sky."
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Portending Another Attack, Israeli Foreign Ministry Smears Sumud Flotilla as 'Jihadist Initiative'
One journalist said that it "feels like the response is being set up to be more severe than in the past."
Sep 18, 2025
After Hamas urged international support for the Global Sumud Flotilla, Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday signaled another potential attack by claiming on social media that the peaceful humanitarian mission to feed starving Palestinians in the Gaza Strip "is a jihadist initiative serving the terror group's agenda."
While Israel has not taken responsibility for recent drone attacks on the Global Sumud Flotilla—whose name means perseverance in Arabic—the incidents have raised eyebrows, given the country's history of attacking previous ones. The foreign ministers of 16 other nations on Tuesday implored Israel not to target this flotilla, which involves activists and political leaders from dozens of countries, including eight US veterans.
As Middle East Eye reported Thursday, Hamas—which Israel and the United States designate as a terrorist organization despite its governance of Gaza—called for escalating the global movement in solidarity with the strip "in rejection of the [Israeli] occupation's aggression, crimes of genocide, and starvation."
"We call for mobilizing all means to support the Global Sumud Flotilla heading to Gaza, and we warn the occupation against targeting it," Hamas also said in a statement, part of which was quoted in the Israeli ministry's post on X.
Responding on the same platform, journalist Séamus Malekafzali said: "Past comments from the Israeli government about the aid flotillas focused on celebrity vapidity or didn't mention their aim at all. Now, they're honing in on it being a supposedly terrorist instrument. Feels like the response is being set up to be more severe than in the past."
The post came two days after Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism published a report titled "Global Sumud Flotilla": A Humanitarian Cover With Documented Links to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
As Brussels Signal reported Thursday:
Flotilla representatives and critics dismissed these claims as Israeli disinformation, echoing accusations leveled at prior missions, and called the report a case of "guilt by association," reliant on photos and unverified affiliations rather than evidence of operational control.
Organizers emphasised transparent crowdfunding for aid, with no terror funding, and framed the convoy as a grassroots response to aid blockages.
Earlier this week, a commission of independent experts at the United Nations concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and an investigation from The New Humanitarian found that Israeli forces have killed nearly 3,000 Palestinian aid-seekers and wounded almost 20,000 others since October 2023. As of Thursday, the overall death toll has topped 65,000, though experts warn the true tally is likely far higher.
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The Conclusion Is Inescapable: Israel Is Committing Genocide in Gaza
Having named it a genocide, we must use every ounce of our leverage to demand an immediate ceasefire, a massive surge of humanitarian aid facilitated by the UN, and initial steps to provide Palestinians with a state of their own.
Sep 17, 2025
Hamas, a terrorist organization, began this war with its brutal attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 innocent people and took 250 hostages. Israel, as any other country, had a right to defend itself from Hamas.
But, over the last two years, Israel has not simply defended itself against Hamas. Instead, it has waged an all-out war against the entire Palestinian people. Many legal experts have now concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The International Association of Genocide Scholars concluded that “Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide.” The Israeli human rights groups B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel have reached the same conclusion, as have international groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Just yesterday, an independent commission of experts appointed by the United Nations echoed this finding. These experts concluded that: “It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.”
I agree.
If there is no accountability for Netanyahu and his fellow war criminals, other demagogues will do the same.
Out of a population of 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza, Israel has now killed some 65,000 people and wounded roughly 164,000. The full toll is likely much higher, with many thousands of bodies buried under the rubble. A leaked classified Israeli military database indicates that 83% of those killed have been civilians. More than 18,000 children have been killed, including 12,000 aged 12 or younger.
For almost two years, the extremist Netanyahu government has severely limited the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza and thrown up every possible hurdle to the United Nations and other aid groups trying to provide lifesaving supplies. This includes an 11-week total blockade in which Israel did not permit any food, water, fuel or medical supplies to enter Gaza. As a direct result of these Israeli policies, Gaza is now gripped by manmade famine, with hundreds of thousands of people facing starvation. More than 400 people, including 145 children, have already starved to death. Each day brings new deaths from hunger.
But it is not just the human cost. Israel has systematically destroyed Gaza’s physical infrastructure. Satellite imagery shows that the Israeli bombardment has destroyed 70% of all structures in Gaza. The UN estimates that 92% of housing units have been damaged or destroyed. At this very moment, Israel is demolishing what’s left of Gaza City. Most hospitals have been destroyed, and almost 1,600 healthcare workers have been killed. Almost 90% of water and sanitation facilities are now inoperable. Hundreds of schools have been bombed, as has every single one of Gaza’s 12 universities. There has been no electricity for 23 months.
And that is just what we know from aid workers and local journalists—hundreds of whom have been killed—as Israel bars outside media from Gaza. In fact, Israel has killed more journalists in Gaza than have been killed in any previous conflict. The result: There is likely much we don’t know about the scale of the atrocities.
Now, with the Trump administration’s full support, the extremist Netanyahu government is openly pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank. Having made life unlivable through bombing and starvation, they are pushing for “voluntary” migration of Palestinians to neighboring countries to make way for US President Donald Trump’s twisted vision of a “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Genocide is defined as actions taken with the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.” The actions include killing members of the group or “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.” The legal question hinges on intent.
Israeli leaders have made their intent clear. Early in the conflict, the defense minister said, “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.” The finance minister vowed that “Gaza will be entirely destroyed.” Another minister declared: “All Gaza will be Jewish… we are wiping out this evil.” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said, “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible.” Another minister called for, “Erasing all of Gaza from the face of the Earth.” Another Israeli lawmaker said, “The Gaza Strip should be flattened, and there should be one sentence for everyone there—death. We have to wipe the Gaza Strip off the map. There are no innocents there.” Yet another Knesset member called for “erasing all of Gaza from the face of the Earth.” And, just recently, a minister in Israel’s high-level security cabinet said: “Gaza City itself should be exactly like Rafah, which we turned into a city of ruins.”
The intent is clear. The conclusion is inescapable: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
I recognize that many people may disagree with this conclusion. The truth is, whether you call it genocide or ethnic cleansing or mass atrocities or war crimes, the path forward is clear. We, as Americans, must end our complicity in the slaughter of the Palestinian people. That is why I have worked with a number of my Senate colleagues to force votes on seven Joint Resolutions of Disapproval to stop offensive arms sales to Israel. The United States must not continue sending many billions of dollars and weapons to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s genocidal government.
Having named it a genocide, we must use every ounce of our leverage to demand an immediate ceasefire, a massive surge of humanitarian aid facilitated by the UN, and initial steps to provide Palestinians with a state of their own.
But this issue goes beyond Israel and Palestine.
Around the world, democracy is on the defensive. Hatred, racism, and divisiveness are on the rise. The challenge we now face is to prevent the world from descending into barbarism, where horrific crimes against humanity can take place with impunity. We must say now and forever that, while wars may happen, there are certain basic standards that must be upheld. The starvation of children cannot be tolerated. The flattening of cities must not become the norm. Collective punishment is beyond the pale.
The very term genocide is a reminder of what can happen if we fail. That word emerged from the Holocaust—the murder of 6 million Jews—one of the darkest chapters in human history. Make no mistake. If there is no accountability for Netanyahu and his fellow war criminals, other demagogues will do the same. History demands that the world act with one voice to say: Enough is enough. No more genocide.
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