News - World: The United States has refused to support an immediate halt to Israel’s relentless attacks on the Gaza Strip at an emergency UN Security Council meeting despite mounting calls to stop Israeli atrocities.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres convened the meeting on the “humanitarian catastrophe” in the besieged Palestinian territory on Friday, two months after Israel launched its air and ground strikes on the besieged territory.

The brutal war has so far killed more than 17,487 people and left the territory in ruins.

Deputy US Ambassador Robert Wood, however, told the meeting that Washington does not support a ceasefire. 

"While the United States strongly supports the durable peace, in which both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and security, we do not support calls for an immediate ceasefire,” signaling that Washington will probably veto the ceasefire resolution as it did before. 

The General Assembly, where the US has no veto power, overwhelmingly supported a humanitarian ceasefire. On Oct. 26, the assembly approved the cease-fire with 120 votes in favor and only 14 against the non-binding resolution.

UN inaction makes it complicit in Gaza slaughter: MSF

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Friday that the council is "complicit in the ongoing slaughter" in the Gaza Strip through inaction and vetoes.

The charity said that “the inaction of the United Nations Security Council and vetoes from member states, particularly the United States, make them complicit in the ongoing slaughter; this inaction has given license to the mass killing of men, women and children.”

The meeting was convened after Guterres activated Article 99 — a step no one in his post has taken for decades. 

Source: Press TV