U.S. Casts Sole Vote Against Gaza Cease-Fire Resolution

The United States on Wednesday vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where fighting has raged for more than 13 months and a humanitarian crisis is intensifying.

Underlining Washington’s diplomatic isolation on the issue, the United States cast the sole vote against the resolution, with the 14 other Council members voting in favor.

The United States said it vetoed the resolution, the fifth the Council has taken up, because it did not make the cease-fire contingent on the release of the hostages still being held in Gaza. The resolution does call for the release of all hostages, but the wording suggests that their release would come only after a cease-fire was implemented.

The impasse at the United Nations appeared in contrast to cease-fire talks in Lebanon, where a top U.S. envoy, Amos Hochstein, said on Wednesday that there had been “additional progress” in efforts to halt the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group allied with Hamas. Mr. Hochstein, saying he hoped “to try to bring this to a close if we can,” traveled to Israel on Wednesday evening.

The leader of Hezbollah said Wednesday that the war’s end was now in the hands of Israeli leaders.

The U.S. veto on Wednesday was the fourth time the United States has blocked an effort by the Council to demand a cease-fire in Gaza since last year, when Hamas led an attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people and took more than 200 others hostage. More than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the local health authorities, and the territory faces the risk of famine, experts say.