US blocks UN Security Council statement blaming Israel for deadly Gaza aid stampede

UNITED NATIONS — Arab nations have failed to get immediate support for a UN Security Council statement that would have blamed Israeli forces for opening fire at Palestinians waiting for the delivery of food and other humanitarian aid near Gaza City and killing dozens of people.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, tells reporters after an emergency closed council meeting on the deaths, that 14 of the 15 council members supported the statement put forward by Algeria, the Arab representative on the body.

The United States did not support the statement and US deputy ambassador Robert Wood tells a reporter who questions why, “We don’t have all the facts on the ground – that’s the problem.”

He says there are contradictory reports and the US is trying to gather all the facts, including regarding the “circumstances around how people died” which is a key issue.

Wood says diplomats are working “to see if we can find some language that everyone can agree on,” and an agreement could come Thursday night or not at all.