A Russian-drafted U.N. Security Council resolution that called for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Israeli war on Gaza failed to pass on Monday, while a vote on a rival Brazilian text was delayed until Tuesday.

The draft resolution received five votes in favor and four votes against, along with six abstentions. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the five permanent members – the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain – to pass.

“Today, the entire world waited with bated breath for the Security Council to take steps in order to put an end to the bloodletting, but the delegations of the Western countries have basically stomped on those expectations,” Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, told the council after the vote.

Russia proposed the one-page draft text on Friday, which also called for the release of captives, humanitarian aid access, and the safe evacuation of civilians in need. The text condemned violence against civilians and all acts of terrorism.

For his part, Palestine’s ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour accused the UN Security Council of watching the attacks against 2 million people in the Gaza Strip for 10 days.

Stressing that people in Gaza are being killed, injured, displaced and terrorized, Mansour said Israel has not spared a single Palestinian family in Gaza.

“No one should forget that these are human lives, that Palestinian lives matter too. And no one should entertain the illusion that killing more Palestinians will ever make Israelis more secure,” he added.

Source: Agencies