US vetoes UN Security Council resolution urging an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, hours after UN secretary general Guterres said “it is time to act”.

Palestinian envoy to UN decries resolution’s failure as “disastrous”, says Israel’s continued war on Gaza will lead to more atrocities, killings and destruction.

Several countries have expressed regret at the US’s decision to veto the UNSC resolution, including Russia and China, who are permanent members of the council, Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey said.

So what happens next?

Saloomey said a resolution passed by the council last month, which called for humanitarian pauses, could be re-visited.

That process would include “putting the secretary-general in charge of overseeing measures to enact those pauses and to get aid into Gaza”, she added.

Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch, says that by using its veto, the US has prevented the UN Security Council from making decisions that “the US itself has been demanding”.

That includes calling for all parties to the conflict to comply with international humanitarian law, protect civilians, and release “civilians held hostage”, Charbonneau said in a post on X.

“By continuing to provide Israel with weapons and diplomatic cover as it commits atrocities… the US risks complicity in war crimes,” he said.