Iran ‘strongly’ condemns US veto of UN Gaza ceasefire resolution

Iran has “strongly” condemned the United States for vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution that called for an immediate ceasefire and full humanitarian access in Gaza, AFP reports.

Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said in a statement that the US move to block the resolution, which was supported by 14 of the 15 members of the council, demonstrated “the country’s complicity in the crimes of the Zionist regime (Israel) and strongly condemned it”.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has accused Israel of carrying out “premeditated genocide” in the Gaza Strip during a trip to Paris, AFP reports.

“It’s a premeditated genocide from a far-right government that is waging a war against the interests of its own people,” he said at a joint press conference with France’s President Emmanuel Macron.

While Lula has previously used the term “genocide”, Macron has refused to, saying last month it was not for a “political leader to use to term but up to historians to do so when the time comes”.

The Gaza Health Ministry has said in a statement that the number of people killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, has risen to 54,677, with 125,530 wounded, Al Jazeera reports.

At least 70 people were killed in the last 24 hours, the ministry says, and 189 wounded people were admitted to Gaza hospitals in that same period.

At least three of those killed in an Israeli drone strike at the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City were journalists, Al Jazeera reports.

Al Jazeera Arabic named two of the media persons as Ismail Badah and Sulaiman Haja, who used to work for the Palestine Today channel and were killed inside the hospital.