US defends its veto of call for Gaza ceasefire while Palestinians and others demand halt to fighting

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States defendied its veto of a call for the immediate suspension of hostilities in Gaza at a U.N. meeting and again faced demands by the Palestinians and many other countries for a cease-fire now in the Israel-Hamas war – as well as by a group of rabbis in the balcony. U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood called the Russian-proposed amendment to a Dec. 22 Security Council resolution which it vetoed “disconnected from the situation on the ground.” Riyad Mansour, the U.N. Palestinian ambassador, told the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday his people are “being slaughtered,” with entire families killed. He declared: “The horrors need to end and the only way to end them is a ceasefire.”