TEHRAN- The clock is ticking toward a potential Israeli genocide in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip amid the regime’s anticipated ground offensive in the city.

As the death toll from Israel’s months-long war on Gaza is nearing the grim milestone of 30,000, the war cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has indicated that the ground invasion of Rafah may begin around the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is expected to start on March 10.

Despite international efforts to put a halt to Israel’s killing machine and prevent a new massacre in Gaza, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden gave the Netanyahu regime another carte blanche to press ahead with its brutal onslaught.

On Tuesday, the U.S. vetoed an Algerian-proposed resolution at the UN Security Council demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. 

Thirteen countries on the 15-member body backed Algeria's resolution, while the UK abstained.

Undoubtedly, the U.S. veto underlines Washington’s growing isolation in its continued backing of Israel. This is because the U.S. was the only country that cast the sole vote against the resolution. 

Since Israel launched war on Gaza on October 7, it was the third time Washington wielded its veto to block a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the besieged Palestinian territory. 

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield claimed that the resolution would jeopardize her country’s continuing negotiation efforts with Qatar and Egypt to broker a deal that would release captives from Gaza in exchange for a temporary humanitarian ceasefire. 

Following Hamas’ military operation in southern Israel in October, more than 1,100 were killed. Nearly 250 were also taken captive. After a round of exchanges for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel in November, around 130 remain captive in the Gaza Strip. But a fourth of them are believed to have died as a result of Israel’s relentless strikes in the territory.  

Widespread criticism 

Washington’s rejection of the resolution prompted widespread criticism from rivals and allies alike. Algeria’s UN ambassador made a blistering attack on the U.S. for rejecting the move. 
Amar Bendjama told the Security Council that the veto “implies an endorsement of the brutal violence and collective punishment inflicted upon” the Palestinians. He added that “silence is not a viable option, now is the time for action and the time for truth.”

The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations called Washington’s veto of the UN push for a ceasefire “absolutely reckless and dangerous.”

Riyad Mansour said, “The message given today to Israel with this veto is that it can continue to get away with murder.”

Elsewhere in Ramallah, the office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas slammed the U.S. for blocking the resolution. 

In a statement, it said, “The U.S. veto defied the international community and gave Israel an additional green light for the Israeli occupation to continue its aggression against the people of Gaza and to launch a bloody assault against Rafah”. 

Hamas also denounced the U.S. decision to oppose the resolution. 

“The American position is considered a green light for the occupation to commit more massacres and kill our innocent people through bombing and starvation,” the resistance movement said. 

China’s UN ambassador also issued a stern warning. 

“The U.S. veto sends a wrong message, pushing the situation in Gaza into a more dangerous one,” Zhang Jun said.

He added that objection to a ceasefire in Gaza is “nothing different from giving the green light to the continued slaughter”.

“Only by extinguishing the flames of war in Gaza can the world prevent the fires of hell from engulfing the entire region,” the Chinese envoy said. 

Russia also came down hard on the U.S. administration for voting against the ceasefire resolution. 

Russia’s UN ambassador said the veto marked “another black page in the history of the Security Council”.

Vasily Nebenzia said the U.S. move could help Israel complete its “inhumane plans” for Gaza and squeeze the Palestinians out of the territory and completely “cleanse” it.  

France, which is among America’s close Western allies, also made critical remarks. 

France’s UN envoy expressed regret that the resolution “could not be adopted, given the disastrous situation” in Gaza.

Nicolas de Riviere added that France, which voted for the resolution, would continue to work towards all captives being released and for a ceasefire to be “implemented immediately”.

In Latin America, the Cuban president said Washington’s veto made it complicit in Israel’s atrocities. 

“The U.S. has just vetoed again the UN Security Council resolution that demanded an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the forced displacement of the Palestinian population… They are accomplices of this genocide of Israel against Palestine,” Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez said. 

Inside the U.S., the Council on American-Islamic Relations lashed out at the Biden administration. 

“The latest U.S. veto of a UN ceasefire resolution is shameful. President Biden should stop acting like Benjamin Netanyahu’s defense lawyer and start acting like the President of the United States,” CAIR director Nihad Awad said in a statement.

Biden has recently sharpened criticism of Netanyahu for pressing ahead with his brutal military campaign in Gaza. 

But, the veto of the Algerian-proposed resolution, showed that the White House does not want to use its leverage at the Security Council to rein in Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza. 

Biden has also expressed regret that many civilians, including children, have been killed in Israel’s war in Gaza. But vetoing the Gaza ceasefire resolution exposed the true face of

Biden and other American officials and showed that the loss of civilian lives does not matter to them at all. 

Besides, the U.S. support for Israel at the Security Council brought the regime’s military failure in Gaza to the fore. 

Netanyahu has already said that the Israeli army has expanded control over Gaza and killed a large number of Hamas fighters. He has also vowed to continue the war until achieving total victory over Hamas. 

But, recent assessments by the Israeli military intelligence revealed that the regime will not be able to destroy Hamas. 

Earlier, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also warned that Israel can’t defeat Hamas by military means.

In fact, the U.S. political backing for Israel at the Security Council is in line with efforts to cover up and whitewash the Netanyahu regime’s failure to achieve its goals. 

In short, Netanyahu seeks to prolong the war to remain in power. As the war rages, he can evade accountability for his failure to prevent the October Hamas attack which crushed the image of the intelligence invincibility of the Israeli regime.

The U.S. also has no scruples to protect Israel even if the regime commits massacre after massacre.