By Palestine Chronicle Staff 
China expressed its “strong disappointment” on Tuesday over the US veto on a UN Security Council draft resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
The official Chinese news agency Xinhua quoted Beijin’s envoy to the United Nations Zhang Jun as saying that “China expresses its strong disappointment at and dissatisfaction with the US veto”.
“The US veto sends a wrong message, pushing the situation in Gaza into a more dangerous one,” Zhang said, adding that objection to a ceasefire in Gaza is “nothing different from giving the green light to the continued slaughter.”
Algeria, on behalf of the Arab states, put forward the draft resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the immediate release of all captives, guaranteed access to humanitarian supplies, and the rejection of forced displacement.
The vote in the 15-member council was 13-1, with the United Kingdom abstaining.
Zhang said in a statement that “the Security Council must act quickly to stop this carnage” and that “this should not be a matter of debate, but rather a moral obligation that the council cannot shy away from.”
“The veto cannot muffle the strong call for a cease-fire and an end to the war. The Security Council cannot stop its work to uphold justice and fulfill its responsibilities just because of the veto,” the Chinese envoy concluded.
The move on Tuesday was the third US veto of a UNSC resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza since October 7.
It came a day after Washington circulated a draft resolution that would support a temporary ceasefire linked to the release of all Israeli captives currently held in the war-torn Strip.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 29,313 Palestinians have been killed, and 69,333 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
