UN Security Council members have criticised the United States after it vetoed a resolution calling for a ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access in Gaza, which Washington said undermined ongoing diplomacy, as per AFP.

Hamas condemned the “disgraceful” US veto, reiterating assertions of “genocide” in Gaza. The veto “marks a new stain on the ethical record of the United States of America”, the group said in a statement, accusing Washington of “legitimising genocide, supporting aggression, and rationalising starvation, destruction, and mass killings.”

Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN, Asim Ahmad, meanwhile, said the failed resolution would “remain not only a moral stain on the conscience of this council, but a fateful moment of political application that will reverberate for generations”.

China’s ambassador to the UN Fu Cong said: “Today’s vote result once again exposes that the root cause of the council’s inability to quell the conflict in Gaza is the repeated obstruction by the US.”

“The Council was prevented from shouldering its responsibility, despite the fact that most of us seem to be converging on one view,” said France’s ambassador to the UN Jerome Bonnafont.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, said after the UNSC vote he would now ask the General Assembly to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire.