UK abstained on UN’s Gaza vote because resolution did not condemn Hamas, says envoy

The UK’s representative to the UN, Barbara Woodward, says Britain abstained tonight on a Security Council vote calling for an immediate ceasefire because the resolution presented to members were did not condemn Palestinian terror group Hamas and its atrocities on October 7 when thousands of terrorists attacked Israel, killed 1,200 people, a majority civilians, and took some 240 hostages.

“Calling for a ceasefire ignores the fact that Hamas has committed acts of terror and is still holding civilians hostage,” she said in remarks cited by Sky news.

“We cannot vote in favor of a resolution which does not condemn the atrocities Hamas committed against innocent Israeli civilians” on October 7, she added.

Woodward said the UK was “gravely concerned” about the humanitarian situation in Gaza and called for “further and longer” humanitarian pauses in the fighting to deliver aid and free more hostages.

Israeli FM accuses UN chief of siding with Hamas in call for Gaza ceasefire

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen posts a scathing rebuke of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, accusing him of standing with Palestinian terror group Hamas in his appeal before the UN Security Council earlier tonight for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Guterres, who for the first time invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter earlier this week, which enables a UN chief to raise threats he sees to international peace and security, warned of an “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza and urged the council to demand a humanitarian ceasefire.

A subsequent vote was held to adopt an Arab-backed resolution to call for the ceasefire, and had wide support but was vetoed by the United States.

In his post, Cohen said Guterres’ call “disgraces his position and constitutes a mark of Cain on the UN.”

“The invocation of Article 99, after it was not used for the war in Ukraine or for the civil war in Syria, is another example of Guterres’ biased and one-sided stance,’ Cohen wrote.

Cohen says a “ceasefire at this time would prevent the collapse of the Hamas terrorist organization, which is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, and would enable it to continue ruling the Gaza Strip.”

“With gratitude to our ally, the US, for its support to continue the fight to bring the hostages home and to eliminate the Hamas terrorist organization, which will bring a better future to the region,” he went on.

Guterres' appeal to stand on the side of Hamas and request a ceasefire disgraces his position and constitutes a mark of Cain on the UN.
The invocation of Article 99, after it was not used for the war in Ukraine or for the civil war in Syria, is another example of Guterres'…

— אלי כהן | Eli Cohen (@elicoh1) December 8, 2023

Earlier this week, following Guterres’ invocation of Article 99, Cohen said the UN chief’s tenure was a “danger to world peace.”

Cohen claims that Guterres’s decision “constitutes support of the Hamas terrorist organization and an endorsement of the murder of the elderly, the abduction of babies and the rape of women.

Hezbollah says three members killed amid reported Israeli drone strike in Syria

Three Hezbollah terrorists and a Syrian were killed on Friday in an alleged Israeli drone strike on their car in the south of Syria, says a UK-based war monitor

“A Syrian and three Lebanese Hezbollah fighters from the surveillance and missile-launching unit were killed in the Israeli drone strike on their rented car” in Madinat al-Baath town in the province of Quneitra, close to the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

The organization, run by a single person, has regularly been accused by Syrian war analysts of false reporting.

Later Friday, Hezbollah said that three of its fighters had been killed, without giving any further details.

IDF hits manned Hezbollah observation post in response to border attacks

The IDF says it struck a manned Hezbollah observation post in southern Lebanon in response to attacks on the border today.

Additionally, the IDF says it identified a group of operatives at an anti-tank missile launch site, from which an attack was carried out earlier.

It says the site and operatives were struck.

כוחות צה"ל תקפו מוקדם יותר היום עמדת תצפית מאוישת של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה.

בנוסף, כוחות צה"ל זיהו מחבלים ששהו בעמדת שיגור נ"ט, ממנה בוצע אמש ירי לשטח ישראל. כוחות צה"ל תקפו את החולייה. pic.twitter.com/vxhqPzBBJo

— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי – Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) December 8, 2023