What the Latest U.N. Cease-Fire Vote Means

Russia and China vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution at the United Nations Security Council on Friday that urged a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war and the release of all remaining hostages in Gaza.

The text, which was supported by 10 other members of the 15-member Security Council, called on all parties in the conflict to abide by international humanitarian law and rejected any efforts to reduce the territory of Gaza through the creation of a security buffer zone, an idea that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has put forward in his plan for Gaza’s postwar future.

The resolution is the latest sign of a subtle shift in the Biden administration’s stance on the war as it seeks to curb the spiraling humanitarian catastrophe in the besieged Palestinian territory. However, experts say it does not represent a meaningful departure from Washington’s long-standing support for Israel at the United Nations. 

“The U.S. was not attempting to make a fundamental shift in its policy at the U.N. over the war,” said Richard Gowan, the International Crisis Group’s U.N. director. 

Washington has historically used its position as a permanent member of the Security Council to defend Israel, including by exercising the U.S. veto. Friday was the fourth time the council held a vote on a cease-fire resolution since the start of the war. The previous three efforts were vetoed by the United States for failing to include language referring to Israel’s right to self-defense and for calling for an unconditional cease-fire that was not linked to the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas. 

U.S. sponsorship of this latest resolution was likely intended to send a message to the Netanyahu government. “The mere fact that the U.S. was willing to do anything in the Security Council at all was a small signal to the Israelis to be cautious,” Gowan said. 

The Biden administration has stood by Israel in the wake of the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, which saw 1,200 people killed and 240 people taken hostage, and has continued to provide the country with military aid in the face of mounting domestic and international criticism. 

At the same time, U.S. President Joe Biden has become increasingly frustrated by what he has described as the “indiscriminate” nature of Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza and the throttling of humanitarian aid into the territory.

Even if the resolution had passed, it would likely have had little “operational impact,” said Louis Charbonneau, Human Rights Watch’s U.N. director, who noted that the text refrained from using some of the more forceful language seen in other similar Security Council resolutions. “If you wanted to have strong obligatory language, it would say ‘demands’ an ‘immediate and sustained cease-fire.’ It doesn’t say that,” Charbonneau said. 

Language used in Security Council resolutions is carefully calibrated, as even slight shifts in tone and word choice can carry significant diplomatic meaning. The 2,000-word U.S. resolution tabled on Friday, which refers to Israel by name only once, said the Security Council “determines the imperative of an immediate and sustained cease-fire.”

Russia and China cited that watered-down wording as a reason for their veto. Ahead of the vote, Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said Moscow supported a cease-fire, but he described the U.S. resolution as an “empty rhetorical exercise.” China’s U.N. ambassador, Zhang Jun, made similar comments. “If the U.S. was serious about a cease-fire, it wouldn’t have vetoed time and again multiple council resolutions,” he said. “It wouldn’t have taken such a detour and played a game of words while being ambiguous and evasive on critical issues.”

Russia has faced increased scrutiny at the U.N. over the past two years for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. “The Russians, in particular, from the get-go used the war [in Gaza] as an opportunity to distract from their own behavior in Ukraine and put the U.S. on the back foot,” Gowan said.

Permanent council members have long wielded their vetoes to protect their interests and those of their allies, but they were often able to work effectively on other fronts. Now, tensions between Russia and the West are increasingly seeping into all areas of the council’s work, diplomats say.

More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, including some 13,000 children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by Hamas but whose casualty figures are regarded as broadly accurate. Israel has severely limited humanitarian aid into Gaza, which has left much of the population on the brink of a catastrophic famine, the World Bank warned this week. 

Friday’s vote at the Security Council came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the Middle East on his sixth trip to the region since the war began. After a meeting in Cairo to discuss ongoing efforts to broker a cease-fire, Blinken said it would be a “mistake” for Israel to launch a planned ground offensive in the southern city of Rafah, where 1.4 million Palestinians have sought refuge from the conflict. 

A defiant Netanyahu said the operation would go ahead, with or without U.S. support. “I hope we will do it with the support of the U.S., but if we have to, we will do it alone,” he said.