US Blocks Security Council Motion Blaming Israel For Deadly Gaza Aid Delivery Incident

There was an overnight push among Arab nations to get the UN Security Council (UNSC) to pass a motion blaming Israeli forces for Thursday’s aid convoy massacre incident, which left a reported over 100 Palestinian civilians dead.

Algeria, the Arab representative at the UNSC as a non-permanent member, brought forward a statement expressing “deep concern” over the incident and asserted the mass casualty event was “due to opening fire by Israel forces.”

The lone veto which blocked it was from the United States, in a UNSC vote that was 14 to 1. The US last month was also the lone veto in the body calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.

The White House had in the immediate aftermath of yesterday’s early morning deadly incident called it “tremendously alarming” and said it is examining the conflicting accounts of what happened. 

“This latest event needs to be thoroughly investigated,” White House spokesperson Olivia Dalton has said. “This event underscores the need for… expanded humanitarian aid to make its way into Gaza.”

The Palestinian side says Israeli forces shot indiscriminately into large crowds of civilians seeking aid, after some 30 trucks loaded with food and supplies parked in a central Gaza City area. However, Israel’s account is that there was a crowd crush and stampede, but further admits that troops fired on a crowd when it surged toward a checkpoint. 

Israel says the vast majority of the deaths were not the result of IDF soldiers firing, and there are claims that the Israelis only sought to fire at civilians’ legs.

US deputy ambassador Robert Wood has said of UN efforts to produce a statement, “The parties are working on some language to see if we can get to a statement.”

“The problem is that we don’t have all the facts here,” he said, adding that he wanted the wording to reflect “the necessary due diligence with regards to culpability.”

Hamas released a statement in the aftermath saying this mass killing calls into question the future of ceasefire talks. “The negotiations conducted by the movement’s leadership are not an open process at the expense of the blood of our people,” the statement said as reported by Reuters.

After more than 100 people were killed near a convoy of trucks bringing in aid to civilians in Gaza City, calls in Congress for increased humanitarian aid and a cease-fire in Gaza are mounting https://t.co/gnaVVNCl0r pic.twitter.com/VTklyal1Rr

— The Hill (@thehill) March 1, 2024

On Tuesday President Biden raised eyebrows in hastily and seemingly prematurely declaring his hope that a truce deal between Hamas and Israel would be achieved by Monday. But now this is even less likely, though that timetable was acknowledged as unrealistic by all parties in response. On Thursday the president walked back the statement.

This latest US veto at the UN Security Council will be held up internationally as essentially another example of “the US and Israel against the world.”