Palestine Permanent Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour criticized the US at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday for its repeated “misuse of veto power” against a ceasefire in Gaza.

Mansour stated that Israel has been committing “genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid” against Palestinians for decades, and the reason why such crimes occurred is because of the “certainty of the perpetrators that they will never be held accountable.” He urged member states of the UN to call for an immediate ceasefire and emphasized the necessity of putting an end to  Israel’s impunity.

The US has previously vetoed three ceasefire proposals that were supported by other nations at the UN. Brazil proposed the first ceasefire resolution and its ambassador, Sérgio França Danese, introduced it in October 2023. The resolution explicitly condemned the October 7 attacks on Israel and called for a temporary ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid entry to Gaza civilians. Yet, the US vetoed the resolution. The UN Security Council proposed a second call for a humanitarian ceasefire in December 2023 based on the UN Secretary-General’s invocation of Article 99 of the UN charter. Article 99 allowed the Secretary-General of the UN to inform the Security Council of any event or issue that may threaten international peace and security. Nevertheless, the failure to pass this humanitarian ceasefire did not prevent the General Assembly from adopting one during an Emergency Special Session on December 13, 2023.

The US also vetoed a more recent ceasefire resolution introduced by Algeria to the UN Security Council in February.

Explaining the vetos, US ambassadors at the UN claim all the ceasefire resolutions do not mention the release of Israeli hostages who were kidnapped by Hamas as a mandatory condition for any permanent or temporary ceasefire, permanently adding that no peace agreement could be achieved as long as Hamas is still in control of Gaza.