New York, New York - The UN on Wednesday continued to back Israel's year-long destruction of Gaza, vetoing a UN Security Council push to call for a ceasefire.

The resolution demanded "an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire" in the war between Israel and the Palestinian group, along with "the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages."

But the wording angered Israel, with a senior US official warning ahead of the vote that the resolution had "the potential only to buoy Hamas, which will have no reason to come to the negotiating table."

"For us, it has to be a linkage between a ceasefire and the release of hostages," said Robert Wood, the deputy US ambassador to the United Nations. "It has been our principle position from the beginning, and it still remains."

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It's the fourth time the US has stood in the way of a ceasefire resolution, single-handedly scuppering an effort that the other 14 members of the Security Council backed.

Since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage, Israel has laid waste to Gaza in a brutal assault carried out with US-supplied weapons that has taken genocidal proportions, according to scholars, legal experts, and human rights groups.

At least 44,000 Palestinians have been killed – an official death toll that is almost certainly an undercount – the vast majority of the population has been violently displaced multiple times, and the territory is on the brink of catastrophic famine as Israel blocks the entry of aid.

The resolution vetoed Wednesday also called for "safe and unhindered entry of humanitarian assistance at scale," including in the besieged northern Gaza, and denounced attempt to starve Palestinians.

"Gaza's fate will haunt the world for generations to come," Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour warned.