Ambassador Robert Wood, Alternate Representative of the U.S. for Special Political Affairs in the UN, raises his hands to veto a draft resolution during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question at the UN headquarters on November 20, 2024 in New York City.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images via AFP

The United States vetoed a U.N. resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in the war in Gaza on Wednesday (November 20, 2024) because it is not linked to an immediate release of hostages taken captive by Hamas in Israel in October 2023.

The U.N. Security Council voted 14-1 in favor of the resolution sponsored by the 10 elected members on the 15-member council, but it was not adopted because of the U.S. veto.

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The resolution that was put to a vote “demands an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire to be respected by all parties, and further reiterates its demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”

The resolution had been sponsored by the 10 elected members on the 15-member council. Unlike the five permanent members — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France – the elected members have no veto power.

The Security Council in June had adopted its first resolution on a ceasefire plan aimed at ending the war between Israel and Hamas. The U.S.-sponsored resolution welcomed a cease-fire proposal announced by President Joe Biden that the United States said Israel had accepted. It called on the militant Palestinian group Hamas to accept the three-phase plan – but the war goes on.