Israel-Hamas war: UN Security Council resolution to demand ceasefire in Gaza fails
A United Nations Security Council resolution to demand a ceasefire in Gaza has failed after it was vetoed by the US.
Of the 15 representatives on the UN member council, 13 voted to back the call but the US blocked it and the UK abstained.
After the vote, US deputy ambassador Robert Wood criticised the council for its failure to condemn Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel, and for failing to acknowledge Israel’s right to defend itself.
Follow latest: ‘At least 10 killed’ in Israeli airstrike on family home
He said halting military action would allow Hamas to continue to rule and “only plant the seeds for the next war, because Hamas has no desire to see a durable peace, to see a two-state solution”.
“For that reason, while the United States strongly supports a durable peace, in which both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and security, we do not support calls for an immediate ceasefire,” Wood added.
The deputy ambassador also called the now-scrapped resolution “imbalanced” and “divorced from reality”, saying it “would not move the needle on the ground in any concrete way”.
Robert Wood. Pic: AP
The UK’s ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward, said: “We cannot vote in favour of a resolution which does not condemn the atrocities Hamas committed against innocent Israeli civilians on 7 October.
“Calling for a ceasefire ignores the fact that Hamas has committed acts of terror and is still holding civilians hostage.”
UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, warned earlier that Gaza was at “breaking point” and desperate people are at serious risk of starvation.
He added the UN believes it will result in “a complete breakdown of public order and increased pressure for mass displacement into Egypt”.
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An emergency meeting of the council was called after Mr Guterres invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter for the first time since 1971.
Article 99 allows the secretary-general to “bring any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security”.
Antonio Guterres
Israel’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan stressed regional stability “can only be achieved once Hamas is eliminated – not one minute before”.
“So the true path to ensure peace is only through supporting Israel’s mission – absolutely not to call for a ceasefire,” he told the council.
“Israel committed itself to the elimination of Hamas’s capabilities for the sole reason of ensuring that such horrors could never be repeated again. And if Hamas is not destroyed, such horrors will be repeated.”
Ziad Issa, head of humanitarian policy at ActionAid UK, said: “It is devastating to see the UK miss this critical opportunity to vote to call for a permanent ceasefire and end the unbearable suffering of 2.3 million people in Gaza.
“With aid operations no longer able to meaningfully function anywhere in the territory and infrastructure on the brink of collapse, now is the moment for international action.”
US
Five family members, including 2-year-old, found dead alongside teen with gunshot wounds at Utah home
Five members of the same family, including a two-year-old girl, have been found dead at a home in the US state of Utah.
A 17-year-old boy was also found alive but with gunshot wounds.
It is not yet clear whether he is a suspect or victim in the case, according to local police.
Roxeanne Vainuku, police spokesperson for West Valley City, a suburb of Salt Lake City, said it’s thought to be an isolated incident and “we do not believe there’s a suspect on the loose”.
A nine-year-old girl and 11-year-old boy were found alongside the 2-year-old and a man, 42, and woman, 38.
Forensic teams examine the family home in West Valley City. Pic: The Deseret News/AP
It has not been revealed how the five people died and forensic teams have been at the house as part of a homicide investigation.
Police were alerted on Tuesday by a concerned relative who entered the home through the garage and found the 17-year-old boy alive.
The boy “suffered a pretty significant injury”, Ms Vainuku said, adding that “we’ve not really been able to communicate with him”.
When officers arrived they discovered the victims in the main part of the home.
The victims appeared to match what police know about who lived at the house – a family with two parents and four children ages 2 to 17, Ms Vainuku said.
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Police were initially called to the home on Monday after a relative said the woman who lives there had not been in touch for a few days.
Officers did not get any response and left, as there was no sign of an emergency, before returning on Tuesday evening when the same women called them again.
West Valley City is about 10 miles (16km) southwest of Salt Lake City.
A death row inmate’s last words were “let’s get this over with” before he became the first person to be executed in the US state of Indiana in 15 years.
Joseph Corcoran, 49, died by lethal injection on Wednesday for the 1997 murders of his brother, his sister’s fiancee and two other men.
He had been on death row since 1999 and was executed despite his legal team and campaigners appealing to Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb to use his powers to grant clemency.
In a petition to the federal courts, including the US Supreme Court, the quadruple murderer’s lawyers maintained that he suffered from “severe and longstanding paranoid schizophrenia”.
They added that this was documented in self-published books from prison in which he described being subject to “ultrasonic surveillance”.
Deputy public defender Joanna Green said on Tuesday: “If the courts do not stay the execution, we are asking Gov Holcomb to grant clemency to Joe, a seriously mentally ill man.”
It came a day after a federal appeals court ruled that Corcoran was mentally fit enough to be executed.
Anti-death penalty groups had spent the past few days demonstrating outside Indiana’s state capitol building which houses the office of Mr Holcomb, the Indiana General Assembly and the Indiana Supreme Court.
They also delivered letters to Mr Holcomb’s office urging him to grant clemency.
Holcomb’s office did not immediately respond to a request from Sky News’ US partner network NBC News on Tuesday.
The governor announced in June that the state had procured pentobarbital, a sedative used in lethal injections, after “years of effort”.
He said at the time: “Accordingly, I am fulfilling my duties as governor to follow the law and move forward appropriately in this matter.”
An undated photo of Joseph Corcoran. Pic: AP
Corcoran’s last meal
The Indiana Department of Correction began the execution process shortly after midnight local time on Wednesday and Corcoran was pronounced dead around 44 minutes later.
The department said his last words were: “Not really. Let’s get this over with.”
Corcoran requested Ben & Jerry’s ice cream as his last meal, the department added.
Ahead of the execution, anti-death penalty campaigners criticised the Indiana Department of Correction for carrying out the process without media witnesses.
Of the 27 states that still allow for capital punishment, only Indiana and Wyoming exclude media witnesses, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre.
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‘It’s going to ruin Christmas’
Before the execution, David Frank, the president of the Indiana Abolition Coalition, made reference to Christmas when he said: “One week before we welcome the light of the Prince of Peace into the world… the state in secret, under cover of darkness, plans to take the life of Mr Corcoran.”
Meanwhile, Corcoran’s sister Kelly Ernst, whose fiancee Robert Scott Turner was one of his victims, said she believes the death penalty should be abolished and criticised the state’s decision to execute her brother a week before Christmas.
Ms Ernst said: “My sister and I, our birthdays are in December… I mean, it just feels like it’s going to ruin Christmas for the rest of our lives. That’s just what it feels like.”
What was Corcoran convicted of?
Corcoran was 22 when he fatally shot his brother James, 30, at the home they shared in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
He also killed Turner, 32, and friends Douglas Stillwell and Timothy Bricker, both 30.
Five years earlier, Corcoran was acquitted of the murders of his parents, Jack and Kathryn Corcoran, after jurors found not enough evidence to convict.
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