The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, blamed the United States this Saturday for the “bloodshed” in Gaza, after having vetoed a UN resolution on a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.
Abbas described the American position as immoral in a statement released by his office in Ramallah and cited by the French agency AFP.
He held Washington “responsible for the bloodshed of Palestinian children, women and the elderly in the Gaza Strip at the hands of Israeli occupation forces.”
The United States on Friday vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, which has been at war since October 7.
The resolution arose from the fact that UN Secretary-General António Guterres invoked Article 99 of the United Nations Charter for the first time.
The article in question allows the Secretary-General to draw the attention of the Security Council to an issue that could endanger international peace and security.
Hours before Friday’s vote, Abbas had appealed to Security Council members to approve Guterres’ initiative, which he praised.
The statement released this Saturday does not mince words and accuses the United States of being Israel’s partners in the “crimes of genocide, ethnic cleansing and war” committed in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.
“This policy is becoming a danger to the world and a threat to international peace and security,” added Abbas, 88, president of the Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
The UN resolution, which comes more than two months after the start of the war in Gaza, triggered by the Hamas attack on Israeli soil, obtained 13 votes in favor and the United Kingdom abstained.
As one of the five permanent members of the Security Council, along with China, France, the United Kingdom and Russia, the United States can veto any resolution.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh had already described the failure at the UN as a disgrace and as “another blank check handed to the occupying state to massacre, destroy and displace.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen stated that a ceasefire would “prevent the collapse of the Hamas terrorist organization,” the declared target of Israeli operations in Gaza.
This Saturday, Hamas structures published a global count of 17,490 people killed by Israeli bombings against the Gaza Strip.
Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israeli soil on October 7 killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities.
Source: TSF
