ActionAid is dismayed to see the United States veto a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. The fact that the rare step of invoking Article 99 was taken for the first time in decades to make this vote happen underlines the enormous gravity of the situation.
The vote couldn’t have come at a more critical moment. The situation in Gaza has now deteriorated so profoundly that aid operations are almost entirely unable to function. Hundreds are being killed each day – predominantly women and children – and infrastructure is teetering on the brink of total collapse. The scenes on the ground have rightly been described as apocalyptic.
Last night, the United States had a critical opportunity to take meaningful action by joining other Security Council members calling for a ceasefire. Instead, they cast the sole vote to veto the resolution. In doing so, they have failed – yet again – to stand with humanity, and they have abandoned the people of Gaza to yet more suffering and trauma.
ENDS
For media requests, please email Christal.James@actionaid.org or call 704 665 9743.
Spokespeople are available:
- Niranjali Amerasinghe, Executive Director of ActionAid USA
- Riham Jafari, Coordinator of Advocacy and Communication for ActionAid Palestine
About ActionAid
ActionAid is a global federation working with more than 15 million people living in more than 40 of the world’s poorest countries. We want to see a just, fair, and sustainable world in which everybody enjoys the right to a life of dignity and freedom from poverty and oppression. We work to achieve social justice and gender equality and to eradicate poverty.